Spanish anesthetist infected patients

Juan Maeso, Spanish anesthesiologist, was sentenced with 1,933 years in prison after infecting 275 people with the virus by injecting them with morphine from the same needles he used to inject himself.

The anesthesiologist was a morphine addict who suffers from hepatitis C and who spread the virus to another 275 victims by giving himself a portion of morphine shots meant for them and then shooting the rest into them without changing the syringes. Hepatitis C is a blood-borne infection that affects the liver and can be spread through contact with the blood of infected persons. The biggest concern related to the disease is that many people don’t know they have it.

Juan Maeso worked in four hospitals in the coastal city of Valencia and had been infecting people from 1988-1997. Out of 275 patients he infected, four died. He was ordered by the court to pay $200,000 to the families of the four people who died, as part of fines totaling more than $27 million for all of the victims.

Evidence clearly pointed to him in the infection cases, it said as no patients have come down with hepatitis C since he left the hospitals. He tried to defend himself by saying he acted because he was helpless from his drug addiction but the court naturally dismissed the argument.