A surgical tech who infected at least 18 hospital patients with hepatitis C by stealing liquid painkillers and leaving behind her dirty syringes was sentenced to 30 years in prison Wednesday after a tearful plea for mercy, saying: “I am not the monster that drugs made me be.”
Faced with the choice between Kristen Diane Parker’s appeal for “another chance” and her victims’ emotional claims that what she did amounted to attempted murder, U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn sent Parker to prison for longer than called for under sentencing guidelines.
The typical sentencing range for the 27-year-old’s crimes is 20 to 25 years. Parker, who cried and nervously tapped her leg throughout most of the two-hour hearing, had fresh tears streaming down her cheeks as she learned her fate.
The judge earlier tossed out a plea bargain that would have sent Parker to federal prison for 20 years. On Wednesday, he called her actions “incomprehensible and unconscionable.”
“Ms. Parker didn’t just quit; she got caught,” Blackburn said, adding that “addiction explains but never excuses.”
He said he was particularly disturbed that Parker continues to claim she didn’t realize she had hepatitis C while she was stealing painkillers from patients, many of whom say they suffered pain upon waking from surgery.
Parker, who worked at Rose Medical Center in Denver and Audubon Ambulatory Surgery Center in Colorado Springs, was told her first week at Rose — after a pre-employment screening — that she probably had the disease. Still, Parker stole fentanyl laid out in operating rooms in preparation for surgery. She injected herself with the painkiller up to two or three times a day for several months, refilling the syringes with water or saline solution for patients.
To date, tests have confirmed 18 people who had surgery at Rose contracted the potentially deadly liver disease from Parker.
Eight additional people also are presumed to have the disease because of her drug theft.
“I know everyone is waiting for me to answer the million-dollar question: why?” Parker said in court, pausing often to wipe tears. “I won’t sugarcoat it. I was a drug addict.
“I am certainly not looking for pity or sympathy. There is no doubt in my mind where I deserve to be: jail. It’s time to reap what I have sown.”
The courtroom was packed with Parker’s victims and their families, including Mike Kraft, whose now-21-year-old son was infected during a surgery to remove a lump in his throat that was benign.
“We struggled to understand how this could possibly happen at a major hospital,” Kraft said. “This incurable disease has changed his life and all our lives forever.”
The husband of another hepatitis C victim, who went by his initials, B.K., to protect her identity, said Parker “turned our fairytale life into a living nightmare.” His wife, a mother of three who loved to hike, ski and workout, now can’t unload the dishwasher or climb stairs without getting fatigued.
She is on a year-long drug regimen similar to chemotherapy.
“We have tried very hard to be strong in front of our children, telling them their mother will get better,” B.K. said, his voice cracking. “I see the toll that it’s taking on them, and it really breaks my heart.”
Several of the victims, as well as Parker’s boyfriend, also blamed the hospital.
“It’s Rose’s negligence, and they should be sitting right here next to Kristen Parker for her sentencing,” said Michael Moody, Parker’s “significant other.” “The criminal here should be Rose Medical Center.”
An attorney for the hospital sat in the courtroom but did not comment. Rose released a statement later, saying the hospital has improved policies to protect narcotics.
“We are grateful to have closure to one part of this terrible situation,” it said. “We have taken care of our patients all along and strive to fulfill the trust they place in our physicians, staff and hospital.”
Parker’s parents sat in the courtroom’s front row. Her mother, Judy, said if the family had known about her addiction, they would have spent money on rehab — instead of attorney fees now.
“Please don’t hate her,” she said. “Kristen Parker is not a bad person; she’s a drug addict that needs help.”
