Nurse convicted of spreading hepatitis C in hospitals tries again for compassionate release

Note: To head off confusion when reading this article please recognize that the nurse's surname is Neilson; meanwhile, the appellate judge's surname is Nielson. I had to read the article three times to recognize and comprehend the article.


A former nurse convicted of spreading hepatitis C in two Northern Utah hospitals by diverting injectable narcotics from patients is trying again to get a compassionate early release from her five-year federal prison term.

In a 13-page, handwritten motion to U.S. District Judge Howard Nielson Jr. filed in Salt Lake City on Friday, Elet Neilson claimed she has heightened risk from COVID-19 because she has hepatitis C.

The former emergency room and intensive care registered nurse, who worked at McKay-Dee and Davis hospitals, also said she has rejected an offer of the Moderna vaccine where she is incarcerated, the minimum security Alderson prison camp in West Virginia.

“I have had adverse reactions to vaccines in the past,” she said. “I have no confidence in the substandard medical care (at the prison) to treat such a reaction in an urgent manner.”

Read more: https://www.heraldextra.com/news/state-and-regional/nurse-convicted-of-spreading-hepatitis-c-in-hospitals-tries-again-for-compassionate-release/article_c8e3f841-f218-57bc-8858-5662c307ddb6.html
(Provo Daily Herald)