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Lawsuits filed in Pittsburgh hospital bacterial outbreak

Infection Control Monitor, April 15, 2004

Ten people or their families filed lawsuits April 13 against a Pittsburgh hospital alleging neglect involving an infectious outbreak in 2002, the Associated Press reports.

Allegheny General Hospital has acknowledged that 16 patients were exposed to Pseudomonas bacteria through bronchoscopes that weren't properly sterilized. The bacteria are common but can cause pneumonia in severely ill people. Eight patients eventually died, but hospital officials said only one of the deaths was linked directly to the bacteria.

Of the 10 people named in the lawsuits, five have died. The Food and Drug Administration investigated the outbreak, but failed to find a cause.

Alan Perer, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the lawsuits seek to determine why the outbreak occurred. It remains unclear whether the hospital staff failed to properly disinfect the bronchoscopes, whether there was a problem with the disinfecting equipment, or whether the bronchoscopes were flawed.

The two lawsuits named as defendants the hospital; Olympus America, the maker of the bronchoscopes; and Steris Corp., which makes a machine that sterilizes bronchoscopes.

One of the lawsuits represented injuries suffered by eight people, while the other was a class-action suit on behalf of two people who died in the hospital. Perer said there are potentially 540 people eligible for inclusion in the class-action suit for being put at risk by the contaminated bronchoscopes.

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