Sign up for one of our email newsletters.
Updated less than a minute ago
Another lawsuit against UPMC surrounding the fatal mold crisis was filed Tuesday in connection with the October death of an Upper St. Clair man.
Lawyers for the family of John R. Haines, 65, also are suing the health system's linen supplier, Paris Healthcare Linen Services of DuBois.
The newest lawsuit targets a new hospital, UPMC Shadyside. The previous incidents in which organ transplant patients suffered fungal infections were contained to UPMC Presbyterian and Montefiore hospitals.
Haines is the sixth person believed to have died after contracting a fungal infection inside a UPMC facility.
The lawsuit alleges negligence, wrongful death and medical malpractice.
UPMC said it would respond to the new lawsuit by day's end Tuesday.
In a previous statement, Chief Quality Officer Tami Minnier said, “UPMC still went above and beyond state and federal recommendations in order to implement changes to protect our patients.”
Paris CEO Dave Stern issued a statement saying the company consistently meets or exceeds accreditation standards and regulatory guidelines for laundering linens.
“We continue to cooperate with all regulatory agencies involved in the oversight of linen processing,” he said. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Pennsylvania Department of Health both reviewed the facts in this case. Neither agency identified linens as the source of the problem.”
Haines was diagnosed with acute leukemia and bacterial pneumonia when he was transferred from St. Clair Hospital in Mt. Lebanon to UPMC Shadyside in September, the lawsuit states. On Oct. 5, after several weeks of chemotherapy treatment, he was diagnosed with a rhizopus fungal infection, his lawyers said.
He died Oct. 10, and a death certificate lists his causes of death as cardiac arrest, sepsis and rhizopus fungal pneumonia.
“At all times relevant hereto, Defendant UPMC and Defendant Paris knew or should have known that fungi like rhizopus, thrive, proliferate and reproduce best in moist/damp environments,” the lawsuit stated.
On the day of his death, his family received a letter from UPMC patient safety officer Lisa Donahue.
The letter said, “During your stay, you developed an infection in addition to the infection you presented with to UPMC Shadyside. This was identified by positive culture results and/or symptoms you may have experienced.”
At the time of his initial admission, he did not have any kind of fungal infection, according to Pittsburgh attorneys Brendan Lupetin and Jerry Meyers.
The case filed in Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas marks the fifth known lawsuit connected to mold deaths in organ transplant patients that surfaced in September 2015. Two lawsuits have been settled for $1.35 million apiece.
An internal UPMC report that surfaced last month indicated heavy mold growth was found in linens delivered to UPMC Montefiore.
UPMC hired Andrew Streifel, a hospital environment specialist with the University of Minnesota's department of environmental health and safety, to investigate Paris Healthcare Linen Services.
As part of the investigation, Streifel inspected a linen cart delivered by Paris to UPMC Montefiore on Feb. 2, 2016. Samples showed “heavy fungal growth” of rhizopus on the “wet sheets collected from the UPMC laundry carts,” he wrote in the report. He also found rhizopus mold at the Paris facility and on its roof.
In a Jan. 27 interview with the Tribune-Review, Streifel said he believes laundry was the source of fungal infections that killed transplant patients.
“The test was very conclusive for fungus,” he said at the time. “It was also conclusive that something was wrong with that laundry.”
Streifel's report, which the medical center received in May 2016, was filed last month in two wrongful-death lawsuits brought against the hospital system by the families of the deceased. Those lawsuits, filed on behalf of families of Che DuVall, 70, of Perryopolis, and Daniel Krieg, 56, of St. Marys, also added Paris as a new defendant.
Paris has denied any wrongdoing.
Despite the new report regarding Paris, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has said it's not taking any further action. Neither is the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Ben Schmitt is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7991 or bschmitt@tribweb.com.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
