Kristen Diane Parker, the 26-year-old operating room technician of the Rose Medical Center, is in federal custody - she is charged with substituting her used, dirty syringes refilled with saline solution for those containing the painkiller fentanyl; thereby exposing as many as 5,700 patients to hepatitis C, during her hospital tenure from Oct. 21,
2008 till April 13 this year!

Charges against Parker were filed on Thursday by the U. S. attorney's office in Denver.

According to Dr. Donald Lefkowits, medical director of the Rose's emergency department, the hospital officials were aware that the technician had the virus when she was appointed at the hospital; but she supposedly had no direct contact with the patients.

Though nine patients, who had undergone surgery at Rose during the time Parker was working there, have been tested positive for hepatitis C; there is no evidence to prove that they had contracted the ailment from Parker.

Rose Medical Center is planning to notify patients of a 'potential Hepatitis C risk' - those had surgery in the main hospital or the Wolf Building between the mentioned dates
- and would be offering free testing for the virus.

Meanwhile, after being fired from Rose, Parker joined the Audubon Surgery Center in Colorado Springs on May 4, and remained there until last week; exposing nearly
1,000 patients to the Hepatitis C virus!