A class action lawsuit has been filed after thousands of hospital patients were told they may have been exposed to various illnesses including HIV.
Nearly 2,400 patients who underwent anesthesia at the Oregon facilities could also be at risk of infections such as hepatitis B and C, the Oregon Health Authority said this month.
The tainted procedures were the fault of a since-fired anesthesiologist, they said – all administered between March 2022 and February
All were informed the physician who administered anesthesia ‘failed to adhere to infection control procedures’ and, as a result, potentially exposed them to infections, the complaint filed by four people in Clackamas County claimed.
They are suing Providence Health for negligence, as well as the Oregon Anesthesiology Group (OAG). The unnamed anesthesiologist was employed by OAG, but treated patients at various Providence medical centers.
‘I don’t think this fair for us to be going through this,’ one of the potentially exposed patients told KATU News in Portland this week.
‘Because, just imagine, people who go to take a blood test are going to go with the fear I can be infected.’
She, like the others, received treatment at one of the centers in the aforementioned timeframe.
The doctor, the hospital said, may not have followed ‘infection control’ practices when administering the anesthesia.
The woman interview was not among those who filed the suit, which claims the hospital’s actions have caused patients ‘pain, suffering, shock, horror, anguish, grief, anxiety, nervousness, embarrassment, [and] humiliation’ beyond belief.
Their also suing for ‘loss of enjoyment of life and other general and special damages’, as the woman in the clip received treatment another, non Providence location owned by Legacy Health
The healthcare company said it notified 221 patients who may have been exposed to infections at their clinics since they hired OAG last year, after Providence cut ties with them months before.
The hospital chain said the provider worked at Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center in Gresham for less than six months, from December to May.
