Former Hospital Nurse Arrested

A former Georgetown University Hospital nurse who has hepatitis is suspected of infecting 15 individuals with the disease at an El Paso military hospital in 2004, one year before he was hired by the university hospital.

The nurse, retired Army captain Jon Dale Jones, was arrested in Miami on March 6 on federal charges of assaulting — by attempting to or actually causing bodily injury to — three patients at William Beaumont Army Medical Center, as well as possession of a controlled substance by fraud. He is suspected of but not charged with infecting a total of 15 military service members or their relatives, according to the Associated Press.

Jones has pleaded not guilty to the charges and waived his arraignment hearing. He was released on $200,000 bond.

At this point, it remains under investigation whether or not Jones infected any individuals during his time at Georgetown.

“He was employed here from August 2005 to late 2006,” Georgetown University Hospital spokesperson Marianne Worley said. She declined to comment on reports that Jones was fired from the hospital.

In October 2004, Jones — a certified registered nurse anesthetist — and 15 patients at the military hospital tested positive for hepatitis C virus, prompting an investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hepatitis C is a liver disease transmitted through blood to blood contact. Symptoms include liver inflammation, fatigue, jaundice and flu-like symptoms. If left untreated, hepatitis C can lead to liver cancer.

The probe revealed that all 15 patients who tested positive for HCV had either been cared for by Jones or had had surgery in an operating room in which Jones had been in the past three to four days. HCV is transmitted primarily through blood-to-blood contact.

The report says the data “suggests” that Jones acquired two different strains of HCV from chronically infected patients on separate occasions, and that he transmitted both of them to the patients while he was in the acute phase of the disease.

According to CDC spokesperson Christine Pearson, the CDC has been investigating Jones since 2005. He was still under investigation when he was hired by the university hospital.

The Associated Press reported this week that federal prosecutors believe Jones spread the disease by diverting fentanyl, a painkiller used with anesthesia, from patients to himself, but the report did not identify this as the source of infections.

“No specific mechanisms of transmission have yet been identified,” the report says.

Jones moved to Washington, D.C., in mid-2005 when he was hired by Georgetown University Hospital. The university sold the hospital in 2000 to MedStar Health, a non-profit community-based healthcare system.

Officials said that the CDC investigation has so far been limited to Jones’s employment in El Paso and does not include the time he spent at the university hospital.

“CDC’s involvement in this case was limited to the public health investigation in El Paso in 2005,” Pearson said. “CDC has not been involved in the ongoing FBI investigation or in any investigation that may be going on at Georgetown Hospital.”

“The primary issue is whether or not he gave somebody hepatitis C, but those charges do not include his activities at Georgetown,” said Jim Darnell, Jones’s attorney.

But FBI spokesperson Andrea Simmons said that the scope of the investigation could change to include Jones’s employment at Georgetown, if necessary.

Worley said that the university hospital has been working with the relevant authorities regarding the case.

“We have cooperated with the FBI and will continue to cooperate with authorities as requested,” she said.

After working at Georgetown, Jones worked at Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News, Va., from July to December 2007. It is unclear why he left his position there. The medical center announced yesterday that it would be contacting 310 patients to caution them that Jones may have infected them with the disease and to recommend getting a blood test.