Medical Malpractice Mistakes In Sterilizing Gastric Scopes

Medical Malpractice Mistakes

We expect that the equipment used on us and our loved ones in medical procedures are sterilized and clean.  This is particularly true in hospital settings, where lots of patients are seen in a short period of time and there is the risk of hospital acquired infections.  As you may know, hospital acquired infections are very strong and difficult to treat, and are easily deadly.

However at one California hospital, investigations have found that there were several patient safety procedure violations in gastric examinations wherein medical scopes was improperly sanitized.  This is a device that is stuck inside of a patient’s mouth, down their throat, and into their stomach.  When that device is dirty and not sanitized properly, it is literally placing dangerous bacteria directly into the center of a patient’s body.

The investigations in California found that this resulted in sixteen infections.  These infections were of very serious hospital acquired infections which were drug-resistant.  This means that they were very difficult to treat and did not respond to most treatments or medications.

As a result, eleven of the sixteen patients infected with the dirty medical scopes used in gastric examinations died.  Eleven of sixteen!  All of these deaths are careless and needless, and occurred because of a healthcare provider’s grave mistakes.  Sanitizing medical equipment is basic and should be perfected in this day and age.

However, many hospitals and healthcare providers take shortcuts or fail to sterilize the equipment long enough.  This could be because there are too many patients scheduled which cut down the time between uses.  This could also be due to a lack of training and proper protocol in sterilizing the equipment.