Former Member of Duke's Patient Advocacy Board Hires Personal Injury Attorneys Brent Adams & Associates after Undergoing Surgery with Hydraulic Fluid-tainted Instruments
A former member of Duke's Patient Advocacy Board has left Duke Medical Center after what she feels to be Duke’s insincerity and inaction concerning the Hydraulic Fluid incident. Carol Svec, who is also a former patient of Duke, has recruited the assistance of Brent Adams & Associates, a law firm that specializes in personal injury and medical malpractice. They will be handling her lawsuit against the North Carolina hospital, as well as the suits of many other former patients who underwent surgery with tainted instruments.
(PRWEB) July 13, 2005 -- In the midst of the cloud surrounding Duke
University Hospital in which thousands of patients underwent surgery with
instruments bathed in hydraulic fluid, a former patient of Duke University Medical
Center has hired personal injury law
firm, Brent Adams & Associates, to pursue a claim against the North Carolina
hospital. That in itself is not altogether unique; Brent Adams & Associates
currently represents several patients who had undergone surgery at the Duke
University Hospital after its instruments had been washed in hydraulic fluid.
What does make it an exceptional situation is that the former patient,
Carol Svec, is also a former member of Duke’s Patient Advocacy Board, a board
specifically created to deal with the highly negative perception of Duke during
the immediate months after the story broke. Yet because Svec felt that Duke’s
efforts were not sincere, she resigned her position with Duke in order to
personally help the patients who had been treated with the hydraulic
fluid-tainted instruments.
Late last year, elevator workers at Duke
University Hospital had drained hydraulic fluid into empty soap containers, but
failed to change the labels. As a result of their alleged negligence, the
surgical instruments that were used on approximately 3,800 patients had been
soaked in elevator hydraulic fluid instead of soap.
Many
patients feel Duke has been reticent and evasive about the possibility of
complications further down the line, as well as too slow to respond to the
public’s questions, said Brent Adams & Associates. While Duke has stated
that there is no chance of infection, they did not address patients' fears that
the mistake led to an increased threat of contracting auto-immune or other
noninfectious disorders.
Svec states that she ultimately decided to
resign her position when she learned that when Duke contacted Exxon, the maker
of the hydraulic fluid, to obtain the makeup of the fluid, Duke never informed
Exxon that patients may have been exposed to it. Exxon therefore did not treat
the request as urgent and took months to respond, she said.
It is part
and parcel with what Svec considers Duke’s failure to acknowledge the danger
posed to patients. "The fact is people are sick; people are hurting," she said.
"We know that there was hydraulic fluid on those instruments…but now [Duke is
trying to backtrack off of that by saying, 'Look at this teeny, tiny bit that
was on there.' It's not right. Right now, I don't think Duke is acknowledging
that patients are sick," Svec said.
Svec underwent surgery for a rotator
cuff tear at Duke in November of 2004. A relatively minor procedure with
generally little or no side effects, it has nevertheless resulted in frequent
headaches and some swelling, according to Svec. Now, she is concerned not only
for her own future health, but also for the health of the thousands of other
patients, many of whom she fears will forget about the incident too quickly.
"What worries me is that some patients will take this and put it in a box and
not worry, when in fact the worst worries are yet to come."
Therefore,
Svec created her own patient support group. The support group, registered at
HydraulicFluidPatients.com, is a resource for patients to help deal with the
emotional and legal aspects of the situation. Brent Adams & Associates, the
medical malpractice lawyers of North Carolina who are
assisting Svec and others pursue a personal injury lawsuit, are assisting Svec
with setting up her newly formed support group.
Brent Adams &
Associates is a North Carolina law firm comprised of Personal
Injury Lawyers who practice law in many different fields, including Nursing Home Neglect, Social Security Disability, Workers Compensation, Auto Accident, Medical Malpractice, Product Liability, and others. www.NCpersonalinjurylaw.com
# # #
Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/7/prweb261177.htm