Official witnessed unsafe procedures at endoscopy clinic
A physician with the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta testified Wednesday that she saw a nurse anesthetist charged in the hepatitis C outbreak improperly reuse a syringe months after the 2007 outbreak.
Gayle Langley, a medical epidemiologist at the Atlanta-based CDC, said she told the nurse, Keith Mathahs, to stop the practice after the procedure.
Langley was the second CDC physician who participated in the investigation of the outbreak to take the witness stand for the prosecution in the trial of Dr. Dipak Desai and another nurse anesthetist, Ronald Lakeman.
Mathahs pleaded guilty in the case and testified against the other defendants last month.
Langley also testified that during her January 2008 trip to Las Vegas to determine the cause of the outbreak, she witnessed nurse anesthetists at Desai’s now-closed Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada improperly use bottles of the anesthetic propofol on multiple patients.
The combination of double-dipping syringes into bottles used on multiple patients spread the virus from patients infected with hepatitis C on two different dates in 2007, Langley concluded.
On Tuesday, another investigating physician, Melissa Schaefer, testified that Lakeman admitted in an interview that he double-dipped syringes into open bottles of propofol.
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 endoscopy center. 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.
Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Follow @JGermanRJ on Twitter.
