A Seattle, Wash., hospital has joined a lawsuit against the manufacturer of endoscopy medical scopes linked to a “superbug” outbreak at the medical center, claiming the company, Olympus America Inc., put patients’ lives at risk by failing to disclose design flaws.
Between 2012 and 2014, at least 32 patients at Virginia Mason Medical Center were infected with strains of E. coli bacteria spread through contaminated scopes that had been sterilized to the manufacturer’s guidelines, according to state health officials. At least 11 died, though the role of the superbug in their demise was unclear, Washington state public health officials said.
In March, the wife of one of the deceased, Theresa Bigler, filed a suit against Olympus, saying her husband, Richard, died in 2013 from pancreatic cancer and an E. coli bacteria infection contracted from one of the company’s faulty scopes. Virginia Mason said it had joined Bigler’s suit because Olympus America knew of the problem with its duodenoscopes.
Bigler’s original suit also named Virginia Mason for not to telling people the scopes might have been infected. It took hospital officials two years to pinpoint the source of the contamination.
Topics Lawsuits Virginia Washington
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