Personal Injury Law

Negligent Hospital Exposes Patients to Hepatitis C

By Steven M. Levin and John J. Perconti

The Miami Herald reported on troubling news out of the local Mayo Clinic. Late last week the hospital began alerting patients of a terrible medical breach that may have exposed them to a deadly virus.

More than 4500 patients at the clinic may have been exposed to Hepatitis C following the abusive practice of a radiology technologist at the facility. Apparently, the employee admitted to stealing an injectable painkiller from the hospital medication stock. The employee was infected with a particular strain of Hepatitis C. Negligent actions by the employees ultimately exposed the thousands of patients to his own deadly infection. So far Mayo Clinic staff members discovered that three other patients have been infected with a strain of the virus similar to the technologist?s strain.

All the other patients who were exposed to the virus are being contacted and are being asked to be tested to ensure that they were also not infected.

Breaches of trust that put patient lives at risk are all too common occurrence at hospitals across the country. Our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti have been involved in many cases where misconduct by employees has caused severe injury to the patients in their care. It is vital that hospitals take every step possible to ensure that the people they hire to care for patients possess the integrity, skill, and professionalism necessary for the important job. There is often no room for medical error in hospital settings, and it is absolutely unacceptable for employees to break the law in a way that may harm or kill the innocent patients at the hospital.

Full post as published by Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog on September 27, 2010 (boomark / email).