A hospital in Portland, Oregon, is facing a class action lawsuit because 2,200 patients may have been exposed to serious illnesses during surgery.
Four patients from Clackamas County filed the claim against Providence Health, KATU reported Monday. Those individuals received anesthesia services at the hospital’s facilities that a contracted physician performed.
During the surgeries, the physician “‘failed to adhere to infection control procedures’ and therefore potentially exposed the patients to hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV,” the outlet said.
There are 2,200 people who were potentially exposed.
According to the lawsuit, the four patients who underwent surgery at Providence Willamette Falls Medical Center have suffered pain, shock, horror, anguish, grief, anxiety, nervousness, embarrassment, humiliation, and loss of enjoyment of life due to the situation, the Associated Press (AP) reported Tuesday.
Hospital leadership recently issued a public safety notice that said thousands of patients were potentially exposed to the diseases. The hospital’s communications director, Gary Walker, noted there was a low risk of exposure, but the persons exposed would received a letter and online notification about the matter.
The unidentified physician worked for Oregon Anesthesiology Group (OAG) before being fired.
The lawsuit claims one patient’s tests for the three diseases returned negative, but her symptoms have caused concern, and she will undergo tests again, per the AP article.
The lawsuit also notes:
Until she receives the new test results, Plaintiff D.C. cannot have any certainty about whether she has been exposed to hepatitis B, hepatitis C, or HIV. And even after she receives her test results, there is no guarantee Plaintiff D.C. is safe from these infections given the possibility of false negative test results.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website says hepatitis B is a liver disease resulting from the hepatitis B virus, and hepatitis C is also a liver disease.
The agency defines HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, as a virus that “attacks the body’s immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome).”
The patients contacted about the issue are being asked to undergo tests for infections.
“The suit claims gross negligence on the part of Providence and an independent anesthesiology firm, which contracted out the anesthesiologist to work at Providence,” the KATU article stated.
