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Device manufacturer sued
again in 'superbug' outbreak at L.A. hospital
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[March 18, 2015]
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A
76-year-old man infected with a drug-resistant "superbug" at a Los
Angeles hospital has sued the manufacturer of a medical device that
caused the illness in the fifth lawsuit related to the bacterial
outbreak at the facility, his attorney said on Tuesday.
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 Plaintiff Domingo Gomez, who was infected by a contaminated device
during an endoscopy at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center, suffered
significant harm from the infection, according to his lawsuit filed
in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Gomez' attorney, Peter Kaufman, declined in a phone interview to
release more information about the man's condition or say why he
initially went to the large teaching hospital.
UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center officials have acknowledged that
seven people were infected with carbapenem-resistant enterobacteria,
or CRE, during endoscopies at the hospital between Oct. 3 and Jan.
28 and that two of them later died.
Kaufman said his firm has filed lawsuits against Olympus Medical
Systems Corp, the manufacturer of the endoscope device, in five of
those cases, including on behalf of Gomez. He said he was unaware of
any other suits tied to the outbreak at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical
Center.
The complex design of the endoscopes, which are used to examine a
patient's digestive tract, linked to the California outbreak may
hinder proper cleaning, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has
warned.
Hospital officials have said that, aside from the seven cases of
confirmed infections, 172 former patients were informed they may
have been exposed to the superbug and they were offered home test
kits.
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No new infections have been discovered among that group but four
former patients were determined to be carriers of the disease, which
does not put them at immediate risk, said Dale Tate, a spokeswoman
for UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center.
A spokesman for Olympus declined to comment on the lawsuit.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Bill Trott)
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