Posted on 07/24/2009 6:45:22 PM PDT by green pastures
MADISON (WKOW) - Some UW Hospital patients may have been exposed to a rare but deadly brain disorder.
UW Hospital officials have told 53 patients they have an extremely low risk of contracting a rare deadly brain disorder after being operated on with contaminated surgical instruments.
The instruments were used on a woman who had surgery on June 11th and died Tuesday from a brain disorder, creutzfeldt-jakob disease.
The hospital got the diagnosis of the fatal disease just this past Monday.
According to hospital spokeswoman, Lisa Brunette, the hospital immediately pulled all the affected instruments and sterilized them again.
Then, through hospital records, identified the patients who would have had open brain or spinal cord surgery since June 11th.
(Excerpt) Read more at wkowtv.com ...
From the “insists tools are safe” article linked at #10:
“Typically, hospitals sterilize equipment by washing and heating it to a very high temperature. Dr. Getto says new “super-sterilization” procedures for the exposed tools include bleaching and heating for a longer period of time at a higher temperature.
The hospital says this meets every safety standard and the recommendations from experts in brain disease and protein.
Still, some people aren’t convinced.
Madison attorney Keith Clifford, who often representatives clients in medical malpractice suits, says he thinks hospitals should err on the side of caution. “
—
For emphasis— Still, some people aren’t convinced.
Ya think?
Someone we knew believed he had CJD. His doctors told him that the only way to be certain would be to actually examine his brain tissue. But they refused to examine the brain tissue because they said the contamination would be so great they would have to incinerate the operating room and everything in it.
If this hospital has not torched and buried those instruments and closed down that operating room, they are continuing to expose patients to prion contamination.
From the insists no negligence article (I think it’s linked at #10):
“The patient, a woman, had brain surgery June 11 to remove a tumor. The tumor was tested and found to be benign. It was not tested for CJD because the woman did not exhibit any symptoms of the disease, nor did the tissue biopsied look as though it had any signs of CJD.”
They were making a distinction between Classic CJD and Variant CJD.
According to the articles, the woman had Classic CJD. I got the impression from local tv news that Classic CJD was less contagious than Variant CJD. Again, that’s just the impression I was left with from the report— I haven’t had a chance to look for more info re: the two types. (Right now I’m on dial up and a laptop that doesn’t even hold its date....)
We’re also in the the heart of CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease) country.
The deer version of mad-cow...
Well, let’s see. There’s Ted Kennedy. That makes one. Plus 534 others, hmm, that makes 535...
Interesting. I hope he’s doing okay now.
Apparently the woman in this story wasn’t exhibiting CJD symptoms when she had the surgery back on 6/11/09. Seems like a really fast progression for CJD.
And, no, the hospital hasn’t torched/buried the instruments. They plan to continue using them after re-sterilization.
They will provide follow-up neurological care and counseling to the 53 patients exposed to date. No word about the surgeons, rad techs, nurses, or staff, etc., who were involved with the original surgery.
Yes, it does progress very quickly. With our friend it took about six months from having no symptoms until he passed away.
..do you mind mentioning how old he was?
Thanks!
You’re welcome! We spent six months in Europe in the mid 80’s, a couple of them in Britain. I keep an eye out for the vCJD stories.
He was a young 41 years old.
So sorry to hear about your friend. Very sad.
The latest in the paper is not only are they going to continue using the instruments, they said “the hospital was not required to notify patients or the public but chose to do so in part because notification has become standard practice for hospitals in similar situations.”
Also “Hundreds of handheld surgical instruments that were either used during the woman’s brain surgery or may have been placed in the same pan as those instruments are now being sterilized through an enhanced process that is both hotter and longer than the usual sterilization process.”
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