44 patients so far.  Have  you been affected by the Hepatitis C outbreak at Rockingham  Coounty’s Exeter Hospital in Exeter, NH?  If so, contact Attorney Peter McGrath of Concord, NH at (603) 224-7111 to learn about your legal rights.  www.mcgrathlawfirm.com
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EXETER —An informational meeting about hepatitis C will be held at the Town Hall Tuesday starting at 6 p.m.

The meeting, titled “Hepatitis C: Medical and Legal Information Night,” is scheduled for Tuesday, June 26 from 6 to 8 p.m.

The meeting is being put on by state Rep. Lee Quandt. R-Exeter and a recently formed patient rights group, The Patient Speaks.

To date, 19 people and Exeter Hospital employee have tested positive for the virus since it was discovered in May. The state Department of Health and Human Services announced that drug diversion by the hospital employee was the likely cause of the outbreak tied to hospital’s cardiac catheterization laboratory.

The panel of speakers include: Quandt; former Republican state rep. Elenore Casey Crane of Nashua; Dr. Raymond Chung, medical director of the liver transplant program at Massachusetts General Hospital; and Domenic Paolini, a Boston-based attorney and former cardiac surgeon.

Paolini, who has been critical of the state’s investigation of the Exeter Hospital outbreak, and Crane co-founded The Patient Speaks.

Topics to be covered at the meeting include additional information about hepatitis C, treatment options, advancements in hepatitis C treatments, and legal and insurance information, according to Quandt.

The state Department of Health and Human Services held an informational meeting about the outbreak on June 15 but Quandt didn’t feel that it was enough.

“No one is touching the human aspect of what it means to have hepatitis C,” Quandt said. “It’s time we start looking out for individuals.”

Quandt called Chung one of the country’s leading experts on the liver and said he will offer a lot of good information about the disease and treatments.

The Patient Speaks is scheduled to launch its Web site on June 22 at www.thepatientspeaks.com

Hepatitis C meeting

Unionleader.com reports
John Doe, a former Exeter Hospital patient infected with hepatitis C said he he wants nothing to do with the hospital.
The man, a 49-year-old industrial mechanic and father of three children, is identified as John Doe No. 1 in a lawsuit filed in Rockingham County Superior Court.
He spoke briefly this morning to the media.
“It sets you back,” he said. “You’re depressed all the time. You try to find something to do to get your mind off it, but you can’t.”

If you’ve been affected by the Hepatitis C outbreak caused by Exeter Hospital employee, call (603) 224-7111 to understand your legal rights.

Unionleader.com reports
John Doe, a former Exeter Hospital patient infected with hepatitis C said he he wants nothing to do with the hospital.
The man, a 49-year-old industrial mechanic and father of three children, is identified as John Doe No. 1 in a lawsuit filed in Rockingham County Superior Court.
He spoke briefly this morning to the media.
“It sets you back,” he said. “You’re depressed all the time. You try to find something to do to get your mind off it, but you can’t.”

If

Understanding hepatitis C:Hepatitis C is a contagious disease of the liver. It is literally an  inflammation of the liver. Other than sharing a needle with someone who has the  disease, it can result from toxins, certain drugs, some diseases, heavy alcohol  use, and bacterial or viral infections. Other common types of hepatitis are hepatitis  A and hepatitis B.
According to the CDC, the health effects of hepatitis C “can range in  severity from a mild illness lasting a few weeks to a serious, lifelong  illness…Most people become infected with the hepatitis C virus by sharing  needles or other equipment to inject drugs.”
The CDC also warns that “there is no vaccine for hepatitis C. The best way  to prevent hepatitis C is by avoiding behaviors that can spread the disease,  especially injection drug use.”

If you would like to know more about a possible lawsuit related to contracting hepatitis C from the outbreak at Exeter Hospital in Exeter, New Hampshire,  call our medical malpractice attorneys now.   Please call (603) 224-7111.

EXETER — Multiple Exeter Hospital patients complained during a special meeting held by the state Friday night about having to be re-tested for hepatitis C because the hospital sent the state expired blood samples.

The complaint was brought up on several occasions by patients and attorneys during the roughly two-hour public meeting on the Exeter Hospital hepatitis C outbreak held at Exeter High School.

State Health Director Jose Montero said the blood samples taken for the hepatitis C testing expire after 72 hours and the hospital didn’t deliver 27 samples to the state lab in time earlier this week.

“It was an issue of coordination and we’re investigating how it happened,” Montero said.

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Attorney Peter McGrath of Concord, who has filed two class action lawsuits against Exeter Hospital, said he has multiple clients who don’t want to go back to Exeter Hospital. He questioned why the hospital is still open while the state is investigating the outbreak.

McGrath’s concern was shared by a number of residents.

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Drug diversion has been ruled the likely cause of the outbreak. Montero said that in drug diversion cases a hospital employee typically steals a syringe containing medication while procedures are taking place, injects himself or herself, fills the syringe back up with saline solution, then the syringe gets re-used on the patient.