New York Olympus Bronchoscope Infections Attorneys

This isn't an article on bacteria and infection. This is an article informing you of a medical device that is resulting in the exposure and transference of bacteria and infection.

Bronchoscopes are tubes equipped with a small light and camera that is medically used to examine airways, diagnose or rule out illnesses such as pneumonia and lung cancer. It has been estimated that 415 patients at John Hopkins Hospital alone have been subjected medical devices that more likely than not carried bacteria known as Pseudomonas. Pseudomonas bacteria are able to cause disease in animals, plants and humans. Naturally occurring in soil and water, the bacteria are also able to live on the surfaces of plants and animals, including humans.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a type of bacteria often found in humans, emerging only upon illness or a weakness in the immune system. Infections are caused in the urinary tract, lungs, blood, airways, and ANY TISSUE that is already compromised or injured. P. aeruginosa also causes inflammation of the skin. Death is rare, but not unheard of.

The time frame for this outbreak starts 06/01/2001 up until 02/04/2002. 100 patients out of 415 tested positive for infection.

Upon determining the cause of the outbreak it was discovered that it was the Bronchoscope that was infecting the patients. The device was determined to have a design flaw that shield these bacteria from cleaning machines and other forms of sterilization. This allowed the bacteria to be carried from one person to the next, causing the infection.