Federal prosecutors in Colorado announced Wednesday that a hospital surgery technician accused of stealing painkiller syringes is HIV positive and urged patients who may have possibly infected by him to be tested. Swedish Medical Center, which fired him in January, has offered free testing to about 3,000 patients for HIV, and hepatitis C and B. So far 2,500 have tested negative.
Advertisement
9Wants to Know has investigated Allen’s troubled medical career in which he was repeatedly hired and fired by several hospitals after he was caught stealing fentanyl.
Doctor Maida Soghikian of Scripps Health said that according to hospital records, she doesn’t think patients were put at risk by Allen, but she believes as a cautionary measure patients who may have been treated while Allen was employed at Scripps should get tested.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Denver released the information Wednesday about Rocky Allen as part of a plea for patients who may have been infected by him to be tested.
The Disease Control and Environmental Epidemiology Division at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has completed its investigation of alleged drug diversion by a surgical technician at Swedish Medical Center between August 2015 and January 2016.
Authorities haven’t previously described Allen’s health status.
Rocky Allen has pleaded not guilty to charges that he took a syringe of painkillers and replaced it with one containing another substance at Swedish Medical Center in suburban Denver. He was confronted by hospital officials and given a urinalysis and tested positive for Fentanyl. About 2,500 of them took tests for HIV and Hepatitis B and C, but 500 out of that group did not return for follow-up testing, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors have said he has a history of moving from hospital to hospital and lying about his past to steal drugs. Incredibly, this is not Allen’s first issue at a hospital or with drugs. 500 who were initially tested have not followed up on the recommended additional testing.
Allen, 28, is facing charges of tampering with a consumer product and obtaining a controlled substance by deceit.
Allen’s lawyer claims that the veteran suffers from post-traumatic syndrome and started using pain killers on his tour as a medical Navy worker in Afghanistan.
Advertisement
Hospital spokeswoman Nicole Williams said the problems found were not directly related to the Allen case and that a later review found “zero deficiencies”.
