Wow this is a world class fuck up of massive proportions. And apparently nobody is reporting on it. Found via the excellent No Agenda podcast. Granted I looked for a more “credible” news source than the one they posted because if I didn’t people would scream bullshit. So here it is via the Washington Post (not at all credible but many think it is).
What happened is one of the hospitals wasn’t properly sterilizing anal probes colonoscopy scopes after use. Instead they only sterilized them at the end of each day and more or less rinsed them off between uses. So far the damage is as follows:
As of Aug. 3, eight of those patients have tested positive for HIV, 12 for hepatitis B and 37 for hepatitis C, according to VA.
A veteran of the Army, Juan Rivera, is rightfully suing after being tested positive for HIV. He was prompted to get tested when his father found out that the hospital wasn’t properly sterilizing the scopes. This sums up the problem:
“This is just a question of neglect and sloppiness,” Leesfield said. “They just run people through like a mill.”
This better end up being a case of criminal neglect as well on the part of the doctors (the ones trained on the equipment and hence were the ones told the scopes must be sterilized after each use) performing the tests. Seriously you’re sticking a probe up a person’s ass. At what point do you think it’s OK not to sterilize it after every use? Shit isn’t sterile like urine, in fact it’s the exact opposite.
Our soldiers put their lives on the line to defend this country. They survived their tours of services only to end up being exposed to diseases that there are no cures for and are always fatal. Further the fact this story isn’t on the front page of every news site is rather alarming. I guess we have bigger stories involving dead people.