A Pasadena Public Health Department investigation report released this week reveals 16 patients at Huntington Hospital were infected with the “superbug” following procedures with tainted Olympus duodenoscope between January 2013 and August 2015. Of those 16 patients, 11 have died, with only one death certificate listing the scope-related bacteria as the cause of death. Huntington Hospital had previously said only three patients were infected in the outbreak. PSBR attorney Pete Kaufman and client Roy Aponno spoke with the Los Angeles Times on June 2, 2016 following the news. Mr. Aponno had undergone five duodenoscope procedures at Huntington Hospital in late 2014 through June 2015 to treat gallstones and was hospitalized on antibiotics and morphine for three weeks following a surgery due to severe pain. The doctors were vague about what was wrong with him and it wasn’t until the outbreak garnered media attention that a doctor phoned Mr. Aponno and told him he was “probably among those patients that got the superbug.”
“I think I was one of the lucky ones,” Mr. Aponno told the Los Angeles Times.
Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP is currently representing a number of patients who underwent endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography or “ERCP” procedures at Huntington Hospital, and at other hospitals, who later developed the superbug infection as a result of tainted Olympus scopes. On February 23, 2015, Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP filed the first CRE superbug lawsuit against Olympus America, Inc., Olympus Corporation of the Americas, and Olympus Medical System Corporation (collectively, “Olympus”) relating to the CRE “superbug” infection that was spread among Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center patients as a result of the manufacturer’s TJF-Q180V Duodenoscope.
If you believe that you, or a loved one, were exposed to the “superbug” infection as a result of a procedure, you should act quickly to protect the rights you have against the responsible parties. Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP stands ready to assist with these very important legal issues.
Read the Los Angeles Times article here