In Brief: Huntington Hospital Linked To More Scope Deaths

Huntington Hospital in Pasadena has been linked to as many as 11 patients who died after being infected with improperly sterilized duodenoscopes.

A report issued by the City of Pasadena's Public Health Department linked as many as 16 patient infections to the tainted scopes. Eleven of those patients later died, although some were apparently seriously ill prior to being infected. However, only one of the death certificates issued by the hospital listed a scope-related infection as a cause of death.

Infections and patient deaths throughout many regions of the country have been tied to a duodenoscope manufactured by the Japanese tech firm Olympus. The instrument, which is inserted through the patient's mouth into the duodenum, was apparently all but impossible to sterilize under the guidelines issued by the manufacturer. Olympus has since revised its cleaning and sterilization guidelines for the instrument.

Huntington had previously disclosed only three scope-related infections that apparently occurred in July 2015. Huntington had disclosed to Olympus three deaths but had claimed patient privacy laws barred it from publicly announcing those deaths.

The new disclosure of patient deaths is linked to infections that occurred between January 2013 and August of last year, according to the Los Angeles Times. As a result, Huntington late last month decided to inform all patients treated by the tainted scopes since the start of 2013 about the potential for contracting an infection.