PITTSBURGH, Pa. — The family of a Natoma woman is suing UPMC Presbyterian and two other medical staffing companies because, the family claims, they failed to notify law enforcement or health authorities when they found an employee stealing narcotics and injecting himself with them.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported the lawsuit in a Jan. 24 story.

Eleanor Y. Murphy, 89, Natoma, died at Hays Medical Center on Nov. 6, 2012, according to the complaint, which said she contracted hepatitis C after being treated by David Kwiatkowski, who worked at HaysMed when she was hospitalized there in June and July 2010.

According to the complaint, a UPMC employee saw Kwiatkowski in May 2008 enter an operating room at UPMC and hide a syringe in his pants. The hospital discovered a short time later that fentanyl, a painkiller, was missing. When Kwiatkowski was confronted, hospital personnel found three empty fentanyl syringes on him.

Kwiatkowski no longer was allowed to work at the hospital, the lawsuit said, but UPMC took no action to report Kwiatkowski’s behavior to law enforcement or medical licensing facilities.

Because of that, the complaint continued, he was permitted to continue working at a number of hospitals across the country for four more years.

The lawsuit, which includes claims for negligence and seeks punitive damages, also names as defendants Maxim Healthcare Services Inc. and Medical Solutions LLC, which placed employees in health care jobs.

Kwiatkowski pleaded guilty in August in New Hampshire to 16 federal counts and was sentenced to 39 years in prison. Prosecutors said he was responsible for infecting at least 45 hospital patients with hepatitis C by contaminating their syringes.

Shae Veach, HaysMed vice president of regional operations and marketing, said Tuesday he wasn’t aware of the lawsuit, and said the hospital’s focus during the two-year ordeal has been patient education.

“We haven’t had any patients come in and be tested for a number of months,” he said. “Our focus has been and continues to be on our patients and the community of western Kansas. … Delivering a high quality of care, a great deal of education and seeking the right level of understanding” when it comes to hepatitis C.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment played the lead role in testing hundreds of patients who were possibly in contact with Kwiatkowski during his time in Hays. KDHE spokeswoman Miranda Steele said the department considers the incident “at this point, an investigation that is complete.”

D. Charles Hunt, Kansas state epidemiologist, told Hays Post that 396 HaysMed patients were tested after the Kwiatkowski case became public in early July 2012. By October 2012, nearly all patients potentially affected had been tested.

Six patients were found to be genetically linked to the strain Kwiatkowski carried. Hunt said he could not comment on patient outcomes.

Information reprinted with permission from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Hays Post contributed to this story.