Victims Confront Exeter's 'Serial Infector'

More than 40 hospital patients across the country—including 32 in Exeter—contracted hepatitis C at the hands of "serial infector" David Kwiatkowski.

Kwiatkowski, 34, on Monday was sentenced to 39 years in prison. The admitted drug addict spread his disease by injecting himself with patients' medication like Fentanyl to get high. He would then replace the syringes with saline to make them appear untouched before they were administered to unsuspecting patients.

The victims—many of them elderly, many already suffering from serious ailments—come from all walks of life. One was a surgeon. Another was a Vietnam veteran. One was a great-grandmother, and one was a truck driver.

They packed the courtroom on Monday for Kwiatkowski's sentencing. Many told Judge Joseph Laplante how their lives have changed. Hepatitis C is a potentially deadly liver disease.

"Thanksgiving Day, I cut my finger," said Paul Libby, a 49-year-old Army veteran who was infected at Exeter Hospital. Hepatitis C can be spread by blood-to-blood contact.

Libby said he didn't cut the turkey because he didn't want to harm anyone.

He turned and faced Kwiatkowski, who returned eye contact.

"You are junk," Libby said. "You are garbage. You don't even deserve to be sitting here."

Dean Emery, who also contracted hepatitis C at Exeter Hospital, said he lost his job as a truck driver because of the side effects of the medication he takes to treat the disease.

"I don't eat or sleep much," Emery said. "I'm isolated in my home and the doctor's office.

"I'm depressed. I hate it.

"When I'm in severe pain I wish ... I could just die."

Ron Murphy is the son of Eleanor Murphy, a Kansas woman who died after contracting hepatitis C from Kwiatkowski. He flew to Concord for Monday's hearing.

Kwiatkowski was a traveler who worked at hospitals across the country. He never married, and prosecutors portrayed him as a pathological liar. He told friends he had cancer, played baseball at the University of Michigan and had a fiance who tragically died. All those were lies, according to an FBI report.

"My mother's life was the complete opposite of David Kwiatkowski's," Ron Murphy told the judge. "My mother enjoyed the simple pleasures of seeing her children, her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren."

"The last years of her life were extremely painful. Her last trip to the hospital, she was doubled over in pain. She begged me to take her home.

"I know life must eventually end but the manner in which my mother died is hard to accept.

"His path and my mother's should have never crossed."

Donald Page contracted hepatitis C at Exeter Hospital. He walks with a cane.

"You killed me," Page told Kwiatkowski. "Do you have anything to say to me?"

"I'm sorry," Kwiatkowski replied.

Kwiatkowski then had his turn to address his victims.

"I'm truly sorry for what I've done," he said. "There is no excuse.

"I wish I could sit down with the victims and let them see the real me ... I'm a kind person. I'm not a violent person.

"I don't blame the families for hating me. I hate myself.

"I'm sorry for what I've done. I belong in prison."