LEWISTON – A woman who spent four days in the hospital with an infection earlier this month led police to a downtown apartment where investigators say a man was running an unlicensed tattoo parlor.

Destiney Lemieux spent three of those days and nights quarantined at Central Maine Medical Center while health experts tried to determine what type of infection she suffered.

Shortly before she was admitted to the hospital, Lemieux’s doctor feared she may have contracted monkey pox, according to a police affidavit.

Monkey pox is a viral infection similar to smallpox that began appearing in the United States in June. The disease has been proven to be fatal in some countries.

From the hospital, 21-year-old Lemieux contacted a city code enforcement officer as well as police. She told investigators she had been diagnosed with a staph infection as a result of exposure to dirty needles. She is still waiting for results of HIV tests.

Lemieux said she contracted the staph infection after getting five tattoos over the course of two weeks in an apartment at 26 Knox St. The last time she went to that apartment for tattoo work was June 30, Lemieux said. Shortly after, she became sick, developing lesions and other signs of infection.

Staph, short for for staphylococcus aureus bacteria, typically enters through the skin and can cause complications anywhere in the body.

On July 9, police went to the Knox Street apartment where they spoke with 30-year-old James Purcell. According to a court affidavit, Purcell turned over tattooing needles and other equipment but insisted he only did tattoo work on himself.

Investigators however, said Purcell had done tattoos for more than a half dozen people and that he kept records of his customers. They charged him with operating an unlicensed tattoo parlor while continuing to investigate the case.

Detectives obtained a warrant to search the apartment July 15 although it was not disclosed what was found in the search. Police said they are speaking with other people who may have gotten tattoo work done by Purcell.

In a written statement Lemieux prepared for police, the 21-year-old said she had received five tattoos at the Knox Street apartment: on her forearm, neck, chest, lower leg and ankle. It was the last tattoo – a angel on a cloud with barbed wire around it – that caused most of her problems, Lemieux said.

“This tattoo became inflamed and infected,” Lemieux wrote in her statement. “Along with the pain and swelling of my ankle, I was developing these lesions that itched and would form hard nodes underneath the lesion.”

Lemieux said large, red circles began to appear and the lesions began to seep fluid. Her doctor put her on antibiotics but the problem did not clear up, she said.

Shortly after, Lemieux’s doctor contacted state officials who specialize in infectious diseases. Those officials insisted Lemieux be brought to the hospital where she ended up staying for four days.

“It was horrible. They were picking and prodding me all the time,” Lemieux said Tuesday. “They told me it would take a month for me to feel better.”

Lemieux was treated with antibiotics at the hospital. Physicians, she said, feared the infection would affect her heart and cause further health complications.

Lemieux said she began to worry about health conditions while Purcell was working on her tattoos at his apartment. She said Purcell did not clean his needles between customers and that she did not see him wash his hands – which occasionally had the blood of customers on them.

“Jamie Purcell would use a needle on me and would not clean or disinfect it and then he would go on to use the needle on others in the room,” she wrote in her statement. “His dirty hands, which I never saw him wash, would be in my tattoo as well as others he would do that day.”

Lemieux wrote in her statement that Purcell used the same T-shirt to swab blood and ink from several customers and that he handled his ferrets without washing his hands.

Purcell has denied the allegations. In fact, he denied that he did tattoo work for Lemieux at all. He is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 10.

Lemieux said she is still following up with her doctor and still waiting for results of HIV tests. She is also helping police as they continue to investigate the matter.

“I’m doing whatever I can,” Lemieux said. “I do not want this to happen to anyone else.”

mlaflamme@sunjournal.com