home Buildings, Healthcare Microbiological of the built environment news story of interest: 5 more deaths linked to mold infections at Seattle Children’s Hospital

Microbiological of the built environment news story of interest: 5 more deaths linked to mold infections at Seattle Children’s Hospital

Just a quick post here pointing people to this news story.  I do not know the details of the science /proof here but this certainly seems of potential interest.

SEATTLE (KOMO) – Five more deaths have been linked to infections from a mold in operating rooms at Seattle Children’s Hospital, CEO Dr. Jeff Sperring revealed Monday. Between 2001 and 2014, seven children at the hospital developed infections from the Aspergillus mold and five of them died, Sperring said in a prepared statement.

Source: 5 more deaths linked to mold infections at Seattle Children’s Hospital

7 thoughts on “Microbiological of the built environment news story of interest: 5 more deaths linked to mold infections at Seattle Children’s Hospital

  1. The news story elicits the following statement that I first issued in 1986.
    “Engineered systems within Healthcare facilities tender act as reservoirs, amplifiers, and disseminators of opportunistic pathogens. The two systems of primary importance and in order of magnitude of impact are the facilities domestic hot water system and the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (also known as the HVAC) and how activities such as construction, renovation, demolition, and excavation negatively impact these systems and contribute to an increase in the facilities overall nosocomial infection rate.

  2. CEO of the hospital admits that they failed to recognize this as a problem. See https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/mold-infections-at-seattle-childrens-hospital-tied-to-14-illnesses-six-deaths-since-2001/ for example.

    “Seattle Children’s chief executive disclosed Monday that 14 patients have been sickened by Aspergillus mold since 2001 — six of whom died — blaming his hospital for failing to recognize a connection between the infections and the air-handling units serving its operating rooms.

    Dr. Jeff Sperring, Children’s chief executive, said the hospital had believed earlier infections were isolated events but that recent cases prompted staff to take another look. “Looking back, we should have made the connection sooner,” he said at news conference. “Simply put, we failed.””

    1. Someday I’ll tell you about the Kathobar dehumidification unit at Harper University Hospital of the Detroit Medical Center and an outbreak of pulmonary distress in the ICU Tower.

    1. This story leads me to characterize the non-action on the part of the hospital as malfeasance. Bearing in mind my previous comments, it reminds me of a personal experience when presenting an opportunity for corrective action to prevent further nosocomial infections to a hospital administrator, his response to me was- “We get paid to treat disease, not prevent it.”

Leave a Reply to Jonathan Eisen Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: