Reports: Patient says Vanderbilt Medical Center warned her about possible exposure to HIV or hepatitis due to unsterilized equipment

Nashville, Tenn. – Fox News 17 in Nashville reports that Vanderbilt Medical Center has warned at least one patient of possible exposure to HIV or hepatitis due to unsterilized equipment

FOX 17’s original story is below.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — A problem with some endoscopy procedures at Vanderbilt’s clinic has some patients worried. According to Vanderbilt, it’s about the way a solution was administered.

A Midstate attorney tells FOX 17 News his client is concerned about contracting infections such as hepatitis and HIV.

A patient received this call and was scared.

A routine colonoscopy became a nightmare for the patient, who wished to remain anonymous.

She said more than two months after the procedure, Vanderbilt staff told her she may have been exposed to HIV, hepatitis B and C.

A simple checkup changed the 79-year-old great-grandmother’s life forever.

“I’ve been very careful my whole life, trying to protect myself from everything,” she said.

After the shock wore off, she called Vanderbilt back Monday with questions.

She said she was told possible infections were due to a nurse failing to sterilize the equipment.

She said staff offered to cover the cost of the colonoscopy. That wasn’t a good enough answer to the worries she’s going through.

She also told FOX 17 News that she had no guidance on what to do next and how to prevent it from spreading to others like her husband.

“I’m a bit blind at the moment, apart from the fact that I went on the internet and did my own research, and you know some things are true and some things aren’t. Even with the tests, I have no guidance at all,” she said.

She asked Nashville attorney Daniel Clayton for help with what happened to her.

“A hospital should be a safe place to go and it is the hospital’s duty to ensure that it properly trains its nurses and staff,” he said.

He said other patients had also received the same terrible news.

Vanderbilt told FOX 17 News that fewer than 4 percent of endoscopy patients may have been exposed in the past six months, but has not yet provided a specific number.

One is too many, said the anonymous patient.

“I’m worried about everything and everyone and how I can carry on with my life normally,” she said.

A spokesperson for Vanderbilt Medical Center sent us this statement:

“We recently discovered an issue with administering solution through the endoscope during a limited number of endoscopy procedures at Vanderbilt Clinic. We immediately addressed the issue and reported it to the Tennessee Department of Health. We are in the process of notifying patients who have undergone endoscopy and may be affected.”

“In hindsight, I’m glad they’re taking remedial action, but as a hospital and as an institution, they need to make sure they’re on the front lines taking care of this,” Attorney Clayton said.

“For the next six months I have to adjust my life and everything I do and ask myself if I actually have it,” said the anonymous patient.

She said continuous testing needs to be done before a positive infection can be detected.

Attorney Clayton said he plans to file a lawsuit.

FOX 17’s original story is linked here