CDC official testifies Desai nurse admitted giving unsafe injections

Nurse anesthetist Ronald Lakeman once admitted that he followed the “unsafe” practice of double-dipping syringes into opened bottles of propofol at the clinic where the hepatitis C outbreak occurred, a physician with the Centers for Disease Control testified Tuesday.

The Atlanta-based physician, Melissa Schaefer, said health officials concluded that such questionable injections contaminated bottles of the anesthetic used on multiple patients and spread the blood-borne virus in the summer of 2007.

Her testimony addressed the heart of the prosecution’s criminal case against Lakeman and his former boss, Dr. Dipak Desai, who ran the clinic.

Schaefer testified that Lakeman made the admission when she interviewed him by phone from Atlanta after a January 2008 trip to Las Vegas to participate in the public health investigation into the outbreak.

“He acknowledged that it was not a safe practice, but would keep pressure on the plunger of the syringe to reduce back-flow,” Schaefer told Chief Deputy District Attorney Mike Staudaher.

She also testified that Lakeman asked if the interview was recorded and indicated he would deny the statement if his words became public.

The interview was not recorded, and at the time Lakeman was working as a nurse anesthetist outside Atlanta, Schaefer testified.

Desai, 63, and Lakeman, 65, are standing trial in the courtroom of District Judge Valerie Adair on more than two dozen charges, including murder, criminal neglect of patients, theft and insurance fraud.

The charges focus on the cases of seven hepatitis infections health officials linked to Desai’s Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada. One of the patients, Rodolfo Meana, died last year.

Prosecutors contend a Desai-created work environment that placed profits above the well-being of patients led to the unsafe injection practices and the outbreak.

At the end of Schaefer’s direct testimony Tuesday, she said Lakeman told her he reused syringes because the “owner was concerned with waste.”

That prompted a move for a mistrial by Desai’s lawyer, Richard Wright, outside the presence of the jurors on grounds the testimony unfairly prejudiced Desai.

Following a half-hour argument, Adair denied the mistrial motion. But when she brought back the jurors, she instructed them to disregard Schaefer’s last statement and not use any testimony about the interview with Lakeman as evidence against Desai.

On cross-examination, Schaefer said she didn’t personally see any nurse anesthetists double-dipping syringes when she was in Las Vegas in 2008 to observe the center’s procedures.

But another CDC physician expected to testify did witness the reuse of syringes, she said.

Schaefer testified that she saw one former nurse anesthetist, Linda Hubbard, using opened single-use vials of propofol on multiple patients.

She also said she observed Hubbard risking her own safety walking through a procedure room with an uncapped needle.

“We saw a systematic poor practice,” Schaefer said.

Hubbard had trouble on the witness stand Monday remembering what she told police about the reuse of syringes at the endoscopy center.

Schaefer resumes her testimony on Wednesday in the nearly six-week-old trial.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Follow @JGermanRJ on Twitter.