Hepatitis C outbreak victims react with relief at guilty verdicts

Jun Guerrero, brother-in-law of Rodolfo Meana, the first to die from the 2007 hepatitis outbreak in Las Vegas, struggled to explain how distraught the former Philippine military colonel was after contracting the virus.

“He was so sad,” Guerrero said Monday night after Dr. Dipak Desai was convicted of second-degree murder in Meana’s death. “He was a good man, and I hated to see him so sad.”

In a 2008 interview, Meana said he was so afraid of passing on the virus that he no longer made love to his wife or kissed his grandchildren.

“When you are diagnosed with hepatitis C, your whole life changes,” Meana said. “They tell you it’s hard to spread, but you want to be sure. ... I wanted my family to remember me in a good way.”

During Desai’s trial, jurors were shown a videotaped deposition with Meana, who fought Islamic terrorists in his native land and became a U.S. citizen to be safe. He died last year at age 77 in his native Philippines.

“I hope Dr. Desai spends the rest of his life in jail,” Guerrero said from his Las Vegas residence. “He deserves it.”

The verdict handed down by a Clark County jury found Desai guilty of 26 additional counts, including criminal neglect. Nurse anesthetist Ronald Lakeman was found guilty of 16 counts related to the outbreak but not guilty of murder.

Victims and Las Vegas physicians expressed relief at the verdict but showed no mercy for Desai, who has been jailed.

Victim Bonnie Brunson, who is traveling the country with her husband, Carl, in a recreational vehicle, broke down in tears when told of the verdict.

“She can’t talk,” Carl Brunson said Monday from their North Carolina location. “We hope for closure. This tragedy shouldn’t have happened.”

The Brunsons were among three people awarded more than $500 million this year after a trial that showed insurer Health Plan of Nevada knew of Desai’s professional shortcomings. Bonnie Brunson, 70, testified that she withdrew from the bedroom because she feared passing the virus to her husband. She became so sick from treatment for hepatitis C, her doctor feared she would have a stroke.

Henry Chanin, headmaster at The Meadows School, uses a golf cart to move around campus. It is a reminder of how the hepatitis C he acquired during a colonoscopy at Desai’s clinic changed his life. “I still have joint pain and fatigue,” he said.

A jury awarded him more than
$500 million after a trial on his lawsuit, which argued that drug companies interested in profit sold vials of anesthetic much larger than needed for colonoscopies, tempting staffers to reuse vials among patients instead of throwing away unused anesthetic.

“Candidly, we know the reason this is happening is because of greed,” Chanin said. “The science is clear. We have schools training people. There’s no reason this should be happening today.”

Soon after Patty Aspinwall was diagnosed with hepatitis C, the nightmares began. She said the man she saw as the embodiment of evil, Desai, was chasing her. Even today, she awakes gasping for breath.

She cooks with surgical gloves on and kisses her grandchildren on top of their heads to keep from spreading the virus.

“He (Desai) and Lakeman knew right from wrong,” she said. “They need to pay. Dr. Desai has never shown any remorse.”

Dr. Ivan Goldsmith said Desai’s actions hurt the entire medical community, making people wonder whether all doctors cared more about money than patients.

“The Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners got complaints from Dr. Charles Cohan, and they did nothing about it,” Goldsmith said. “This would have never happened if the board (had) acted.”

Desai was head of the board’s investigative committee when Cohan complained about his unprofessional behavior. Desai received a small fine.

To Dr. Dale Carrison, chief of staff at University Medical Center, what Desai undermined was the doctor-patient relationship in Las Vegas: “So many patients think we all cut corners to make money, and that’s just not true.”

That Desai was taken into custody after the verdict was delivered doesn’t surprise Carrison.

“So shall you sow, so shall you reap,” he said. “His karma caught up with him.”