10,000 Veterans Possibly At Risk After Medical Procedure With Unsterilized Equipment

Amanda Wick — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:27:15 GMT

It seems like just yesterday I remember when The Washington Post wrote about the scandal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a medical facility for Veterans located in Washington, D.C. I was living in Washington at the time and I remember the shock and horror that people felt as they read The Post's exposés on the appalling conditions at Building 18 and the horrible system that Veterans and their families were forced to wade through to get medical care.

Amazingly, those exposés were a little over two years ago and it seems like no changes have been made. Just as you think that VA Medical care jokes may be unfair, something like this happens. I was horrified to recently read an article that in February, the Alvin C. York VA Medical Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee issued a warning that 6,378 patients of the Murfreesboro facility, who had colonoscopies between April, 23, 2003 and Dec. 1, 2008, may have been exposed to infection due to a misconnected valve on equipment that may not have sterilized equipment properly. Then the VA released a statement that 1,800 veterans who were treated in Augusta, Ga., from January through November last year in the ear, nose and throat clinic at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center, were being notified "that they may have been exposed to infection because the instrument used in the procedure was improperly disinfected." The VA statement supposedly described the risk of infection as "extremely small."

Then, in March, it was discovered that 3,000 patients at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Miami had colonoscopies with equipment that wasn't properly sterilized. All three sites in Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida, failed to properly sterilize equipment between treatments, and the problems dated back for more than five years at the Murfreesboro and Miami hospitals. However, the VA continued to insist that the risk of infection was minimal and only involved tubing on equipment, not any device that actually touched a patient.

Sadly, it was not surprising when a week ago it was discovered that 16 VA patients that had been tested were found to be positive for viral infections, including hepatitis. In a Health Alert issued by CBS 3, it was reported that VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts said last Friday that 10 colonoscopy patients from the VA medical center in Murfreesboro, Tenn., tested positive for hepatitis and six patients from the VA clinic in Augusta, Ga., tested positive for unspecified viral infections. She also told The Associated Press that of the 10 patients in Tennessee infected with Hepatitis, four tested positive for hepatitis B and six tested positive for hepatitis C, which is potentially life-threatening and can cause permanent liver damage. So far, no one has tested positive for HIV.

The VA spokeswoman also said that the department doesn't yet have results from most of the more than 10,000 veterans who were warned to get blood tests because they may have been exposed to contamination. This is partially because a number of veterans who received the warning notice have decided to get tested by their own private physician, rather than return to the VA. This reaction is, of course, completely understandable. (However, I would strongly urge any veteran that received that notice to be tested immediately, even if they have to return to the VA. I think in this situation, some test is better than no test at all.) Given the number of exposed patients, it is likely that this number will rise as more and more contacted patients (hopefully) come in for tests or have tests done elsewhere.

Luckily, it appears that two Congressmen from Florida, Rep. Kendrick B. Meek, D-Florida, along with Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, are requesting an official inquiry by the inspector general of the VA. We can only hope that this incident does not disappear on the back page of a newspaper as the Walter Reed Scandal did in 2004, three years before the Post exposé, because Congressional investigators did not want to "embarass" the Army. I think we are long past the time where the Army, and the rest of the armed forces, should be ashamed of the medical care system provided to Veterans, the red tape they have to wade through, and a system that seems set up to ensure that they don't receive the benefits they so rightly deserve.

Though I have never served in the armed forces, I have many friends and family for whom I have immeasurable respect for the service they provided to this country. It is heart-wrenching and sickening that our brave soldiers are forced to face things like this. If you feel strongly about ensuring that scandals such as the one at Walter Reed, or the one that is currently developing, do not continue, I would urge you to write to your Congressman and tell them that our soldiers are NOT forgotten once they come home, that the citizens of this country support our troops both abroad AND at home, and that we urge them to not let fear of embarassing our Military leaders prevent them from helping our soldiers.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Amanda Wick

South Carolina Personal Injury Blog - VA colonoscopy infections

10,000 Veterans Possibly At Risk After Medical Procedure With Unsterilized Equipment