Adventist Media Response and Conversation

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

White Memorial Infectious outbreak

Some unfortunate publicity from White Memorial Hospital.

From JEMS.com News

Improperly sterilized medical instrument is found to be likely cause of infectious outbreak at a Boyle Heights hospital.

By Charles Ornstein and Francisco Vara-Orta
Los Angeles Times
Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times
All Rights Reserved

A premature baby infected by a virulent bacterium at White Memorial Medical Center died Monday morning, the second death believed to be related to an outbreak that forced the Boyle Heights hospital to close its neonatal intensive care unit to new admissions, hospital officials said.

"What started out as the happiest day of my life a month ago has become the worst nightmare," the baby's father, David Marin, 45, said in an interview in Spanish. "We are heartbroken."

Also Monday, the hospital reopened its pediatric intensive care unit after determining that two children infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa were not related to a neonatal outbreak of the same bacterium, which sickened five. The pediatric unit was closed Friday when infections there were discovered.

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