Hospital Admits It May Have Given 18 Patients A Fatal Disease

Novant Health Forsyth Medical Center has admitted it failed to sterilize surgical instruments properly after they were used on a patient with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD).

“Today we are reaching out to 18 neurosurgery patients who were exposed to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease over the last three weeks at Forsyth Medical Center,” said Jeff Lindsay, President of Forsyth Medical Center.

CJD is quite rare, degenerative and invariably fatal. Prions which cause the disease are not guaranteed to be killed using normal sterilizing techniques. I spoke to Lizzie Bennett of Underground Medic to find out how the instruments should have been cleaned:

“There are several ways to clean surgical instruments, immersion in a chemical sterilizing agent, gas sterilization for very delicate, often electronic equipment, and autoclave sterilization. Discounting gas sterilization the other two methods rely on the instruments being cleaned, inside and out in the case of hollow instruments such as laparoscopes, tubing etc, before being treated. They should then be sterilized, and cleaned again before re-sterilizing. Some hospitals I believe sterilize a third time using a different method prior to the instrument trays been packed and wrapped ready for the next use.

In the UK even this was not found to totally guarantee the removal of prions so here all instruments used on known or suspected CJD cases are thrown away after use. All instruments used in tonsillectomy surgery are also thrown away as the tonsils are known to harbor  prions.

Proteins such as blood, mucous,and body tissues denature at 45°C. They solidify, just as an egg does when you cook it. The sterilization process, particularly autoclave sterilization can cause a microscopic piece of bodily protein to set solid, thus protecting and even smaller prion underneath it. If that dried tissue were then to break away, either before or during use, the prion that’s left behind can get into the next patient that the instruments are used on.

This is why here the instruments are discarded, there was cases recorded of this happening so now no chances are taken. It is hollow instruments that usually cause problems because you cannot visually inspect them to ensure they are totally clean. All such instruments should be manually cleaned several times before sterilization but when dealing with CJD, you can’t make the assumption that that’s enough.”

So 18 people now have to be monitored for the rest of their lives because someone failed to follow protocol. Although the medical center is quick to point out how rare the condition is, those figures apply to the general population, not to people who have had prions introduced into their system.

This is nothing short of gross failures. Safeguards are in place to prevent things like this happening, and they obviously were not followed.

Going into the hospital is nerve wracking enough without worrying that you are going to come home with a fatal neurological disorder.

If the cash strapped National Health Service in the UK throws away instruments because their sterility cannot be guaranteed, why is the billion dollar medical system in the US still using the instruments on other patients?

Just another example of profits over people.