Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 14, 2017
Posted on: http://www.advisen.com
The family of a Pittsburgh man who died in October after contracting a fungal infection while he was a cancer patient at UPMC Shadyside filed a lawsuit today alleging negligence by UPMC and the company that washes all of UPMC’s laundry, Paris Cleaners Inc.
The lawsuit filed in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas notes that there is another case of an unnamed patient who died at Shadyside in 2015 after contracting a fungal infection, bringing to seven the number of people alleged to have died at UPMC hospitals after contracting a fungal infection.
The filing today by the family of John R. Haines, 65, is also significant because it is the first time that a hospital other than UPMC Presbyterian and UPMC Montefiore has been connected to the fungal outbreak at UPMC.
In the lawsuit, attorneys for the Haines family, the Pittsburgh firm of Meyers Evans Lupetin & Unatin, allege that the connection between the three hospitals and the six cases that occurred between October 2014 and October 2016 is the hospital laundry washed by Paris Cleaners at its facility in Dubois.
An internal UPMC report released three weeks ago in a related civil suit showed that UPMC had its private investigator, Andrew Streifel, a prominent expert on mold, look at the possibility that the linens were the source of the mold in the cases.
His report — from inspections in February 2016 — found the presence of the same mold, rhizopus, on freshly cleaned linens at Montefiore and on the roof near the air intakes at the Paris Cleaners’ Dubois facility.
In an emailed statement today in response to the lawsuit, Paris Companies CEO Dave Stern said: “Paris Companies consistently meets or exceeds accreditation standards and regulatory guidelines for laundering linens, which demonstrates our ongoing commitment to quality and safety. We continue to cooperate with all regulatory agencies involved in the oversight of linen processing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Pennsylvania Department of Health both reviewed the facts in this case. Neither agency identified linens as the source of the problem.”
In an emailed statement today, UPMC said, in part: “It is critically important to understand that rhizopus is present in all environments and does not cause illness in anyone except for those with the most severely compromised immune systems. Despite our best protocols, it can still be carried into the hospital on the shoes or clothes of visitors.”
“Mr. Haines was very sick when he was admitted to UPMC Shadyside Hospital in September. When he arrived, he was positive for pseudomonas, a very opportunistic and deadly bacteria, and we then diagnosed him with leukemia as well. He had almost no white blood cells, so his immune system was not functioning. We immediately started him on an antifungal treatment and he was never housed in a negative pressure room. His illness progressed though and, despite our best efforts, we did find a colony of rhizopus in his lung fluid immediately prior to his passing. His family told us that Mr. Haines was an avid gardener. We explained that while it was possible he contracted his fungal infection prior to his hospitalization, we decided, however, to classify it as hospital-acquired per CDC guidelines even though clinically there can be no certainty.”
“We have tested hospital linens at UPMC Shadyside and found no rhizopus,” UPMC added.