PITTSBURGH — A Kansas woman who believes she was infected with hepatitis C by a former medical technician now accused of stealing narcotics filed a lawsuit Tuesday against a Pittsburgh hospital where he once worked.

Linda Ficken said in the lawsuit, which was filed in Pittsburgh, that the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center was negligent for not telling any government agency that technician David Kwiatkowski allegedly stole and used narcotics in 2008.

Kwiatkowski went on to work at numerous other hospitals, including one in Kansas, where Ficken was treated in 2010. The lawsuit said that she recently tested positive for hepatitis C.

Kwiatkowski is facing federal drug charges in New Hampshire. He has pleaded not guilty to stealing drugs and tampering with needles.

One expert said the case presents some unusual questions.

“What would have been reasonable for Pittsburgh to do?” said Maxwell Mehlman, Director of the Law-Medicine Center at Case Western University in Cleveland.

Mehlman noted that most medical negligence cases involve things that doctors did, or failed to do, for a specific individual under their care.