Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge Sued Over Bacterial Infection Death

More than a year after a duodenoscope was placed into Ilene Weinberg’s mouth and into her stomach at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, the woman died of an infection caused by the procedure. A recently filed lawsuit claims the hospital failed to properly sterilize the device, causing her death.

Weinberg died on July 6, 2014. The lawsuit filed by her estate claims she was infected with antibiotic-resistant carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, because the tube placed into her body was contaminated. Also named as a defendant is Pentax Medical, the company that made the tube.

According to the FDA’s blog:

Duodenoscopes are flexible, lighted tubes that are threaded through the mouth, throat, and stomach into the top of the small intestine (duodenum). Duodenoscopes are used in more than 500,000 procedures, called endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography—or ERCP—in the United States each year. The procedure is the least invasive way of draining fluids from pancreatic and biliary ducts blocked by tumors, gallstones or other conditions.