Marshall Zelinger | KRDO

COLORADO SPRINGS - The surgical technician accused of potentially exposing thousands to Hepatitis C, admitted to swapping drug needles on June 22nd, but still went to work in an operating room on June 23rd. NEWSCHANNEL 13 talked with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Audubon Surgery Center to piece together a timeline of events.

According to Dr. Ned Calonge, Chief Medical Officer for the CDPHE, during a June 22nd investigation interview Parker admitted to swapping syringes filled with Fentanyl, a strong pain management drug, with used saline filled syringes. Dr. Calonge says on June 22nd, Parker denied doing the same thing at Audubon Surgery Center. Despite being asked by CDPHE to not to go to work the next day, a spokesperson with Audubon Surgery Center tells NEWSCHANNEL 13 Parker was at work in an operating room that day.

In an e-mail to NEWSCHANNEL 13, Dr. Calonge writes:

"On June 22 we asked the person to call in sick or be reassigned from patient care. The person agreed to do this during the interview. It is our understanding that the person tried to comply on the 23rd. If the person had complied there would be no public health risk. We contacted the person on the 24 and the person complied with our request to call in sick. We talked to the person every day after the interview on the 22nd."

CDPHE could not issue a public health alert, which would have notified Audubon Surgery Center, because it lacked sufficient evidence. Dr. Calonge tells NEWSCHANNEL 13, that evidence was still missing when CDPHE decided to issue an alert on June 25th:

"This public health order is unprecedented for those of us working at CDPHE. We required the time to take the information that we got during the interview, the information that the person was unable to comply for whatever reason on the 23rd, and the information we had now for 9 cases, then made the decision that the preponderance of evidence suggested we needed to take an action that took away this person's civil rights even though we did not have definitive proof. We determined that we had the authority to issue the order, wrote the legal document and served it. This occurred the 25th. This transpired with all haste as an issue of utmost importance to us and on re-examination, I firmly conclude it could not have happened sooner."

The number of cases potentially linked to Parker is now at 10, with zero cases in Colorado Springs.

"I think that the health department's responsibility was to contact Audubon and tell them what was going on," said Dulcy Howard, whose 12-year-old stepson had surgery at the Audubon Surgery Center in June. "I'm angry, it makes me very angry,"

According to an Audubon Surgery Center spokesperson, the public health order alerting Audubon about Parker's investigation wasn't received until June 26th. Audubon received a full briefing from the Centers for Disease Control and CDPHE on July 1st. According to DOJ, Rose Medical Center was alerted to the needle swapping on July 1st.

"If they suspected that she was spreading Hepatitis C, they needed to act as quickly as they could, but it sounds like they did," said State Senator John Morse (D-Colorado Springs). "They have to balance her civil rights to not be wrongly accused of something and to be deprived of her job."

Morse serves on the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. He says this privacy issue, as well as licensing for surgical technicians will be discussed next session in January.

"Legislatively, we're going to have to look at both the risk of the public and the right of individuals to live their lives without undue, unnecessary government interference," said Sen. Morse. "Legislatively, we're going to need to look into this and see what kind of flexibility we can give Dr. Calonge, the Chief Medical Officer of the state, to be able to act quickly when a situation like this arises."

Dr. Calonge also tells NEWSCHANNEL 13 that the state is not allowed to divulge personal health information collected in the course of an investigation to other agencies, including all hospitals and medical centers.

CDPHE is still waiting for CDC test results from RNA gene sequencing analysis. The tests, which are being conducted in Boston, will be able to determine if the cases of Hepatitis C are from the same source.

PARKER TIMELINE

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) was notified of someone potentially diverting drugs from Rose Medical Center in Denver in late April.

Parker took a blood test in March, which came back negative for Fentanyl. In April, she took another test that came back positive for Fentanyl.

She quit on April 23, but on April 24 Rose rejected her resignation and fired her for the positive test.

On June 2nd, CDPHE realized a Hepatitis C problem relating to Rose Medical Center.

From June 12th until June 29th CDPHE and Rose Medical Center reviewed surgical patient files and employee files to look for a connection.

NEWSCHANNEL 13 asked the DOJ why the DEA or Denver Police didn't arrest Parker when she was fired after testing positive for Fentanyl, the drug she was suspected of stealing in late April.

"If you arrest every person who tests positive for narcotic in the workplace do you know how many people would be arrested," said Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the DOJ in Colorado. "You don't criminally investigate every single person who tests positive for a narcotic."