2nd Lawsuit Filed Over Surgical Instruments Cleaned With Hydraulic Fluid
By Daniel Hawn
Published on August 02, 2005
The lawsuit was filed by seven individuals who underwent surgery at one of two Duke University Health System hospitals. The defendants in the case are Durham based Automatic Elevator Co. and Cardinal Health 200 of Delaware.
The lawsuit alleges that when employees of Automatic Elevator serviced Duke's elevators, they placed hydraulic fluid into marked containers used by doctors to sterilize surgical equipment.
According to the lawsuit, Cardinal Health then took possession of the receptacles and sent them back to Duke with the fluid still in them. Doctors then performed over 3,800 surgeries, using the contaminated canisters to clean their equipment.
The suit filed in Durham County court claims that the hydraulic fluid may contain cancer-causing chemicals.
The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory damages for pain and suffering as well as punitive damages from both of the companies involved.
Automatic Elevator and Cardinal Health faced a lawsuit earlier this year from a man who claimed to have suffered temporary kidney and bowel damage as well as other conditions due to the hydraulic fluid mix-up.
A representative for Cardinal Health said that the company was examining the causes of the incident and looking for ways to prevent it from happening again.
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