Medical Technician Sentenced in Hepatitis C Outbreak BOSTON - A medical technician was sentenced on Monday to 39 years in prison for infecting at least 45 hospital patients with hepatitis C by contaminating their syringes. The technician, David M. Kwiatkowski, 34, pleaded guilty in August to 16 federal charges, including tampering with a consumer product and obtaining controlled substances through fraud. Prosecutors said that while he was working as a traveling medical technician in several states, including New Hampshire, Kansas and Maryland, Mr. Kwiatkowski injected himself with syringes of fentanyl, a powerful painkiller, then filled them with saline and put them back into circulation for patients. Last summer, thousands of patients were tested for Mr. Kwiatkowski's strain of hepatitis C, an infectious disease that can cause cirrhosis, which can lead to cancer. The 45 patients - one of whom died - who were identified by investigators represent one of the biggest outbreaks of the disease in recent decades. "You handed down to us a potential death sentence," said Linda Ficken, 71, during Mr. Kwiatkowski's sentencing hearing in federal court in Concord, N.H. Mr. Kwiatkowski had treated Ms. Ficken at Hays Medical Center, in Kansas. She gave one of about 20 victim impact statements delivered during the hearing, which lasted several hours. Mr. Kwiatkowski had already agreed to serve a 30-year prison sentence under his plea agreement, but prosecutors asked Judge Joseph N. LaPlante to give him 40 years, arguing that the scope of damage he had caused, and the degree to which he had endangered public health, merited a higher sentence. Jonathan R. Saxe, an assistant federal public defender who represented Mr. Kwiatkowski, argued that his actions were motivated by serious drug addiction, not by an intent to harm others. "His conduct was surely monstrous, but he's not a monster," Mr. Saxe said in an interview after the hearing. "There's no worse place to be a drug addict than in a hospital, where you can gain access to stuff like that," said Mr. Saxe, referring to fentanyl. John P. Kacavas, the United States attorney for New Hampshire, called for more oversight and regulation of medical employees like Mr. Kwiatkowski. "While the conclusion of this prosecution closes the criminal aspect of this case, it has cast a harsh light on the dirty little secret of drug diversion in the medical setting," Mr. Kacavas said at a news conference after the sentencing. Ms. Ficken said the sentence had given her some closure, but little comfort. She learned two weeks ago that her diagnosis ruled out the possibility of her donating bone marrow to her brother, who has leukemia. "Now, the next thing is just dealing with the disease itself," Ms. Ficken said after the hearing.