"Hospital Didn't Train Prego About Hazards, Witness Says"

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1990. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

"Hospital Didn't Train Prego About Hazards, Witness Says"

New York Times (02/06/90), P. B3
Lubasch, Arnold H.

Abstract: Although Kings County Hospital trained its interns to handle patients with infectious diseases in 1983, unpaid assistants, such as Dr. Veronica Prego, did not receive such training, the hospital's former director revealed during cross-examination yesterday. Ira C. Clark, the hospital administrator, was the defense's first witness in the month-old trial of Prego's lawsuit. Prego contends she contracted HIV in 1983 after accidentially pricking her finger on a contaminated needle that a hospital intern carelessly left on a patient's bed. As an "extern", Prego was one of a group of "foreign-trained" doctors that had to perform relatively menial tasks under the guidance of an intern before becoming interns themselves, Clark testified. Stanley D. Friedman, a defense lawyer, says Prego drew the blood herself and knew she should have treated the needle with care. Diane S. Wilner, Prego's lawyer, says the hospital failed to properly train both interns and externs. Clark agreed with Wilner that training for externs was "haphazard.

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