3 Die from Hospital Scope Outbreak

At least three patients died last year at a Southern California hospital in a bacterial outbreak suspected to have been caused by tainted medical scopes, a newspaper reported.

Officials at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena confirmed in August that three patients were sickened but declined to say more. The Los Angeles Times reported that officials later told Olympus Corp., the scope’s manufacturer, of the deaths. The revelation came in the company’s report to federal regulators, which was obtained by the Times.

Hospital officials said they believed patient privacy laws prevented them from revealing the unnamed patients had died.

Contamination of duodenoscopes, lightweight tubes threaded through the mouth into the top of the small intestine, has been linked to bacterial outbreaks that sickened dozens of patients in hospitals around the country.