Cora Weberg, the Washington nurse accused of infecting patients with Hepatitis C by using needles she had previously used on herself, is finally charged five years after initial arrest
A Washington state nurse who allegedly injected herself with narcotics and used the same needle on patients has finally been charged five years after her arrest.
Cora Weberg, a former nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, is accused of giving a dozen patients a genetically similar form of hepatitis C in 2017 and 2018.
Prosecutors alleged that the 36-year-old would inject himself with narcotics intended for patients and then administer the rest of the drug to patients with the same need.
She was initially arrested in May 2018, but was quickly released. At the time, police pressed prosecutors to charge her with assault, but no charges were ever filed.
But on Sept. 1, she was accused of tampering with consumer products at least once. She is expected to plead guilty.
Cora Weberg (pictured) has been charged five years after she was initially arrested. She allegedly used drugs intended for patients and then reused the needle on patients
Weberg formerly worked at Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, Washington (pictured)
In 2018, Pierce County law enforcement officials said the woman administers smaller portions of drugs to patients after using some for herself.
Weberg was “in the throes of depression” when she tampered with drugs at the hospital, her lawyer said The everyday beast.
A probable cause statement claims Weberg confessed to stealing the drugs and said she had a plan “to end her life.”
She was reportedly dealing with a failed relationship with her boyfriend.
Two patients became ill immediately and another 10 became ill over the following three months, as they all tested positive for a similar form of Hep C.
From there, investigators pinpointed Weberg as a suspect, as she was the only hospital employee associated with all of the patients.
A CDC report following the hepatitis C outbreak said Weberg was “the only common epidemiological link” among all 12 patients.
Officials said that in addition to being the common link, the RN was more likely to access medications through the hospital’s computerized system than other employees.
A CDC report found that Weberg tested positive for Hepatitis C, though her lawyers said at the time she had tested negative. Pictured: Weberg with her lawyers
She also admitted passing injectable narcotics to patients for personal use,” the CDC report on the outbreak said.
The report also indicated that Weberg tested positive for Hepatitis C, although her lawyers at the time said she had tested negative.
After being identified as a suspect, the woman was arrested at the Canadian border on May 4, 2018. She was released the next day and never formally charged.
It’s unclear why prosecutors waited five and a half years to charge the woman.
A combined arraignment and plea hearing was held Tuesday, according to court records from Washington state.
An information letter states that Weberg acted “with reckless disregard for the risk of placing another person in danger of death or bodily injury, and under circumstances which showed extreme indifference to such risk.”
In Washington, the charge carries a maximum prison term of 10 years.
Speaking to The Daily Beast, Bryan Hershman, Weberg’s attorney, said it “feels awful that these patients were apparently infected with Hep C.”
“That said, according to the written memo from the CDC and DOH, there is no genetic connection between Ms. Weberg and these patients,” Hershman wrote in an email.
“Moreover, the crime she is pleading for is merely a drug-based charge because, in the throes of her depression, she took leftover vials of medicine from the waste bin after they had been used on the patient. ‘
Weberg was reportedly “in the throes of depression” at the time of her arrest and in the months before
Patients all under the care of the woman tested positive for the same or a similar genetic strain of Hepatitis C.
Other hospital patients who tested positive but were not under Weberg’s care “became infected with strains that were genetically distant from each other.”
However, blood tests afterwards did not show a conclusive genetic link between Weberg and the infected patients.
After her initial arrest, Weberg and her lawyers held a press conference.
She said she “never intentionally or unintentionally stabbed anyone with a needle I had previously stabbed myself with.”
Weberg lost or surrendered her nursing license in four states after her arrest. It is unclear when her next court appearance will take place.