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USA TodayCHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — The Veterans Affairs department says 10 people have tested positive for infectious liver disease since they were exposed to contaminated colonoscopy equipment.
The 10 are among thousands of patients who have been warned to get blood tests since being treated at VA facilities in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Miami and Augusta, Ga. All three sites failed to properly sterilize equipment between treatments.
VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts said Friday that four Tennessee patients have tested positive for hepatitis B. Six have tested positive for hepatitis C, a potentially life-threatening form of the viral infection that can cause permanent liver damage.
She says the VA will make sure they get treatment even though it's not known if the infections came from colonoscopies at its facilities.
The VA recently warned some veterans who had colonoscopies as far back as five years ago at those hospitals that they may have been exposed to the body fluids of other patients and should undergo tests to make sure they haven't contracted serious illnesses.
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"What if you had to worry about giving your wife AIDS?" said Wayne Craig, a 52-year-old U.S. Navy veteran who lives in Elora and had a colonoscopy at the VA's Alvin C. York Medical Center in Murfreesboro, near Nashville, about five years ago. "Why haven't I been notified within five years?"
The review of all VA medical centers and outpatient clinics followed reports in February that the department discovered "improperly reprocessed" endoscopic equipment used for colonoscopies in Murfreesboro and ear, nose and throat exams in Augusta, Ga.
Veteran Gary Simpson, 57, of Spring City had a colonoscopy at the Murfreesboro clinic in 2007. He said his blood has tested negative for HIV and hepatitis, but he's still worried because a nurse told him some diseases don't show up for seven years.
"He talks about it every day," said his wife, Janice. "It has really messed with him a lot. It is just too disturbing."
Nashville lawyer Mike Sheppard said his firm is preparing to file claims on behalf of up to 15 colonoscopy patients, including several who have since tested positive for hepatitis B. He said an elderly man who had cancer when he had a colonoscopy died shortly afterward.
"We are investigating the death," Sheppard said.
According to a VA e-mail, only about half of the Murfreesboro and Augusta patients notified by letter of a mistake that exposed them to "potentially infectious fluids" have requested appointments for follow-up blood tests offered by the department.
In February, the VA said it sent letters offering the tests to about 6,400 patients who had colonoscopies between April 23, 2003, and Dec. 1, 2008, at Murfreesboro and to about 1,800 patients treated over 11 months last year at Augusta.
The VA has now sent letters advising 3,260 patients who had colonoscopies between May 2004 and March 12 at the Miami Veterans Affairs Healthcare System that they also should get tests for HIV, hepatitis and other infectious diseases.
That revelation prompted two Florida lawmakers to demand an investigation by the VA Office of Inspector General.
Dr. Mark Rupp, president of the Society of Health Care Epidemiology of America, said the risk of infection following routine endoscopic procedures is 1 in every 1 million to 2 million procedures.
Rupp, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said that "tracking is very difficult" and that hospitals are not required to report mistakes that expose patients to infectious diseases.
"The people in the hospitals are encouraged to report," Rupp said. "If there is any kind of outbreak usually the Public Health Service is notified."
Janice Simpson said an employee in U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp's office in Chattanooga told her that the blood test notices sent to colonoscopy patients of the Murfreesboro clinic were timed to the date of a procedure on a patient with AIDS. A spokeswoman for Wamp said Simpson was mistaken.
The VA did say in an March 19 e-mail to AP that at the VA's Murfreesboro colonoscopy facility "one of the tubes used for irrigation during the procedure had an incorrect valve." The statement also said "tubing attached to the scope was processed at the end of each day instead of between each patient as required by the manufacturer's instructions."
The VA letter to Craig said he "could have been exposed to body fluids from a previous patient." Craig said his follow-up test did not show any infection.
He said he thinks the VA was saving money by not cleaning the tubing between its use on each patient.
"What if this was a public hospital?" said Craig, who has six grandchildren. "There's no reason in the world a veteran can't file a suit against a veteran hospital the same as a public hospital. This is veterans you are talking about."
Read more:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-03-27-veterans-colonoscopies_N.htm
Negligence in our government!
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