2008 Hepatitis C Outbreak

vegasrocks · #1 05-06-2010, 05:31 PM

I don't remember hearing about this before but I guess there was a hepatitis C outbreak in Las Vegas in 2008. They have finally figured out how it happened.

Apparently the makers of Propofol, Teva Parenteral Medicines and Baxter Healthcare Corp, failed to put on the labels the risks of using the vials on multiple patients.

One instance happened at the Desert Shadow Endoscopy Center. A man was given the meds during routine outpatient surgery and ended up getting Hepatitis C!

He was awarded $5 million in damages to be paid by the two companies.

Okay, so I see that the risks should most definitely be printed on the labels. Thats for sure. But come on now.... don't thos people know you shouldn't use the same thing on another patient unless it can be sterilized! I have no medical training and I know that!!!!

What a bunch of bullshit. This guy goes in and thinks everything is fine and dandy and he ends up with Hep C! I would be one peed off mamajama!!! Is $5 mil enough.... probably not!

anita · #2 05-07-2010, 02:47 PM

Hepatitis C is no joke,My aunt got it when they found out that her family had been subjected to it by her husband,they immunized her family and her for it,well she already had it and when they immunized her for it she ended up getting it.

She had health issues from it her whole life until she died from it twenty years later.She was only 45.This is a serious thing and people should read all about it and do what they can to keep their family safe.

Here is some information on the disease.

http://www.hcvadvocate.org/hepatitis/factsheets.asp

vegasrocks · #3 05-11-2010, 02:48 AM

It is a very serious disease and I am so sorry to hear that your aunt dies from it.

I have to apologize as I had gotten my numbers wrong in my first post. The courts awarded one man $500 million dollars to be paid by the two companies who were found to be at fault. Thats a lot more than the initial $5 mil that I had first said. Sorry- my bad!

That was the largest punitive damages award in Nevada history.

The outbreaks occured at two different endoscopy centers in the Vegas area and both places were shut down in 2008 by state health officials because of unsafe medical practices.

They had been reusing the vials and dirty needles on the patients!

The drug in the vials, propofol, is an anesthesia used in surgery.

More than 40,000 former patients were informed of what happened and were urged to have blood testing done to see if they had Hep C or other fatal blood-borne diseases.

40,000 people may have gotten something deadly because those jackasses thought it was okay to reuse vials and needles! Are you kidding me!!!

Vegasfox · #4 07-20-2010, 10:47 PM

Thats nuts. I have a friend up here that has been having health problems for a few years now. He actually ended up in U of M hospital because his liver was shutting down and was literaly about on his death bed. Hes only in his 30s to. They said that the did a test for hep-C but it came out negative. This was a couple of years ago. Well here about a month ago he ended up going through the same problems. This timme though he was sent to Henry Ford Hospital instead. They did the hep-C test again there and it turns out that he has it. Now they are claiming that the reason it wasnt found the last time is because it went into relapse before they did the test. Its gotta be bull though ive never heard of them not being able to find something like that because it wasnt active at the time. Just goes to show you that you cant always trust the doctors.