Tony Eddolls can’t relax.
He won’t stop worrying — every time he’s tired or dizzy or sick to his stomach — that he has hepatitis C, at least not until the first anniversary of his February surgery at Rose Medical Center.
“Until I click past that year interval from surgery, I will not feel 100 percent,” the Conifer man said.
Eddolls was among the 5,700 people offered testing after health officials discovered that Kristen Diane Parker, a surgical tech with hepatitis C, allegedly stole liquid painkillers intended for patients and left behind saline-filled dirty syringes.
So, far 3,978 Rose patients and about 1,200 from Audubon Surgery Center in Colorado Springs, where Parker worked after Rose, have been tested. Rose still is searching for about 500 people, though a hospital spokeswoman was unable to provide an exact number for those who have not responded to the hospital’s offer of testing.
Eddolls was tested by his doctor outside of Rose, and the results showed he does not have hepatitis C. Still, like many other patients entangled in the breach at Rose, his anxiety persists.
“I feel like, in a way, this woman robbed us of time, even those of us who tested negative,” he said.
The enduring distress is rooted in the multiple blood tests many are receiving to check for the disease.
The basic protocol for hepatitis C screening is a test for antibodies in the blood, which may take up to six months after exposure to appear.
Patients tested through Rose are getting more extensive blood work to avoid the extra months of worry. Those who get tested through their doctor’s office, though, might not get the extra tests.
Parker, who was indicted on 21 counts each of product tampering and obtaining a controlled substance by deceit, worked at Rose from October 2008 until she was fired in April. She was then hired at Audubon.
Rose patients who had surgery in 2008 are receiving blood tests to check for hepatitis C antibodies. If six months after the potential exposure they do not have hepatitis-C antibodies, they are in the clear, according to a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Patients also are receiving a test to check for liver inflammation, said Dr. Donald Lefkowits, medical director of Rose’s emergency department.
A third blood test is added for patients who had surgery after Jan. 1. That one checks for the hepatitis C virus itself.
“The three together being negative, that’s as close to 100 percent as you can get,” Lefkowits said.
He acknowledges, though, that some people don’t feel completely relieved, even after three tests. Rose will retest patients three months later if they request it — to relieve mental anguish.
Numerous people have called the hospital wondering how many tests they should get and how many months they must wait until they are in the clear.
Rose and Audubon recently mailed another round of letters and are calling patients who have yet to schedule testing.
More detailed testing on type
So far, the state health department has released the results of 3,440 hepatitis C tests in the Parker case. Twenty patients from Rose and one from Audubon were found to have the same type of hepatitis C virus as Parker, and 31 were found to have another type.
The 21 cases linked to Parker aren’t definitive. The CDC is doing more detailed genotype testing that is expected to take two or three months.
Rose is offering free treatment for all patients now linked to Parker but will transfer them to private insurance if CDC tests determine Parker was not the source of their virus.
“If it’s from our fired employee, we’re going to take care of you forever,” Lefkowits said.
Treatment for hepatitis C can cost up to $3,000 a month.
Up to 45 percent of people are strong enough to fight off the virus on their own, said Dr. Greg Everson, director of hepatology at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine. If patients haven’t killed the virus on their own within two to three months, they can begin a year-long treatment program.
Doctors typically don’t recommend treatment for the oldest patients, mainly because liver problems associated with hepatitis C often don’t occur for 20 years.
The treatment involves a potent, immunity-boosting shot every week for 48 weeks. For some, the side effects feel like the flu.
Patients also have to take twice-daily pills that attack the virus, plus a second antiviral medicine.
The latest studies show a success rate of up to 70 percent.
The three-drug treatment, refined in the past couple of years, has led some physicians to call hepatitis C curable.
Woke up “squirming in pain”
Hepatitis C is a virus that replicates in the liver, where a person’s immune response ends up causing liver damage and inflammation.
Many patients live for decades with no symptoms whatsoever, Everson said. Others have flulike troubles. And for some, typically after 20 or 30 years, hepatitis C is deadly. The virus eventually causes cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer.
Eddolls, a commercial real estate lender, was convinced he had hepatitis C almost immediately after reading the certified letter from Rose informing him he was at risk. It was his third back surgery, and unlike the other times, he awoke “squirming in pain” — even though his doctor said he got fentanyl, the painkiller Parker is accused of stealing.
“Instead of feeling all woozy and wonderful as you come to, it was like, ‘Bam! I’m awake,’ ” he said. “The anesthesiologist was just scratching his head.”
Later, Eddolls’ surgeon told him Parker was in on the surgery.
“It’s not like you just motor on with your life when you are waiting for the results of something like this,” he said.
Jennifer Brown: 303-954-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com
