Patients File Lawsuit Over Tulane Medical Center's Failure to Sterilize Endoscopes

Patients of Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans have filed a class-action lawsuit against the hospital after facility administrators admitted the hospital failed to properly sterilize an endoscope commonly used to perform colonoscopies, according to a WDSU news report.

The hospital admitted in a letter to patients that an endoscope was not disinfected at the proper temperature during the sterilization process. As a result, patients were exposed to disease such as hepatitis B and hepatitis C. A total of 360 patients were affected by the misstep, according to the news report.

The lawsuit, which was filed last month, accused the hospital of negligently exposing a patient to infectious disease and seeks undisclosed damages for a patient and his wife, who may have been exposed to disease during sexual activity, according to the lawsuit.

Although hospital CEO Robert Lynch reassured the public that patients likely did not contract a disease due to the multiple-step nature of the sterilization process, the hospital is still providing free disease testing for all the affected patients.

Read the news report about the class-action lawsuit against Tulane Medical Center.

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