Good Samaritan Hospital has been slapped with its first lawsuit from a patient claiming he got hepatitis C from a nurse.
And his lawsuit alleges red flags were raised about the nurse almost as soon as she was hired but the hospital ignored them.
A patient filed a formal complaint soon after the nurse was hired at Good Samaritan Hospital. Now a man says he may have gotten hepatitis C from her, four months after the hospital was warned.
"He's exhibiting the headaches and the nausea," said Amanda Searle, a Tacoma lawyer. "And he's already got liver function issues to begin with."
Searle says her client, a man in his 50s, is reeling from the news that he may have contracted hepatitis C from a nurse who treated him in the emergency room at Good Sam.
"So this is just a very scary situation for him," Searle said.
The nurse has been identified as 31-year-old Cora Weberg. She was arrested Thursday night for allegedly stealing narcotics and infecting at least two patients.
Searle says Weberg should have been on the hospital's radar long ago. Another client - a female - complained last August, that Weberg forced intravenous drugs on her.
"According to the client, she refused it," said Searle, "and (the nurse) said, 'No, no, you've got to have it. It's protocol.' And she pushed it into her IV."
Still Good Sam administrators announced last Monday they were informing more than 2,600 patients that the nurse might have infected them, too.
Gus Lauch contacted KIRO to say he is one of them.
"Yeah, I mean it's scary," he said.
Especially, he says, since he has had two strokes and now has congestive heart failure.
"That's when the scary part comes in," Lauch said. "It's like what's it going to do to me with all the other issues I have."
Searle says her clients want answers.
"Because how nerve-wracking is it to get a letter in the mail saying that you might have this?" she said.
On Saturday the nurse said she wanted to tell her side of the story to reporters Sunday afternoon.
But late in the day, word came that she had changed her mind. She has some "issues" she wants to work out with her attorneys before talking to us.
Note: Good Samaritan Hospital had not been served with the lawsuit as of Saturday night.
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Cox Media Group
