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According to a report from the Center for Public Integrity, physicians and hospitals using DIRECT surgical tools are not uncommon and can cause significant harm to patients! The report cited that the more advanced these surgical tools become, the more difficult they are to clean and effectively sterilize for use on additional patients.
In another investigative report published in an issue of Control and Hospital Epidemiology, was trigger as a result of a horrific medical malpractice case. What happened as a sixty-three year-old-man had surgery performed on his rotator cuff to repair some damages he had done to it. The surgery and the recovery should have been relatively quick and painless. However, he ended up getting a really serious infection that was so bad, it began to eat away at his rotator cuff and shoulder bones. Therefore, he had a very long, painful, and even debilitating recovery! All because a surgical tool was not clean!
The Control and Hospital Epidemiology investigative report concluded that the infection most likely was caused by retained tissue on the surgical tool itself that was inserted into the patient’s shoulder. More specifically, the infection was likely caused y an arthoscopic shaver and an inflow/outflow cannula. These tools were carefully inspected with a digital scope and were found, after being cleaned, to have traces of human tissue and blood on them! This is what likely caused the infection in the patient’s shoulder!
The physician and hospital which caused the infection in the patient’s arm stated that they followed the 10-step method of cleaning instructions provided by the manufacturer, which includes using the same scope to see if there is tissue or blood still on the tool.
Years ago, there were similar hospital infections through used biopsy forceps which caused a hepatitis C outbreak. Additionally, I posted a while back about dirty endoscopy scopes which caused an HIV scare at another hospital. Dirty surgical tools are one of the scariest things that a patient has to deal with, and are automatically medical malpractice if they cause harm to the patient.
But what do you think? I would love to hear from you! I welcome your phone call on my toll-free cell at 1-866-889-6882 or you can drop me an e-mail at jfisher@fishermalpracticelaw.com. You are always welcome to request my FREE book, The Seven Deadly Mistakes of Malpractice Victims, at the home page of my website at www.protectingpatientrights.com.