A mother sues an institution after the death of 10 children in an epidemic of adenovirus



[ad_1]

Paula Costigan's son, William DelGrosso, was one of the dozens of medically-frail children who became infected with the virus from late September to the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation. in Haskell, New Jersey.

Until Friday, 31 residents were affected by the outbreak, including 10 deaths, according to the state health department. DelGrosso remains hospitalized.

According to the complaint, DelGrosso had a fever on October 11 and was transferred Oct. 18 to the intensive care unit of the Hackensack University Medical Center with "serious respiratory complications". He is still there, according to the family's attorney, Paul da Costa.

"As a mother, it's hard enough not to have your child under your own roof and to have to trust a school to look after your child," said Costa, adding that Costigan "has the impression that the establishment was trying to hide the fact that there was this serious virus spreading like a wildfire. "

The Wanaque Center refused a request for comment on the trial.

"Children love William"

Costigan does not know where his son will go when he is stable enough to be able to get his intensive care leave, da Costa said.

DelGrosso, who is suffering from a convulsive disorder, needs a respirator to breathe since about the age of 10, when he has entered cardiac arrest after a seizure, said da Costa.

According to a state health department database, New Jersey has four long-term care facilities for children. This includes the Wanaque Center and the Pediatric Center at Voorhees, where seven children were infected with a less severe strain of adenovirus, according to the state's Department of Health. There were no deaths among Voorhees patients.

Costigan does not want his son to return to Wanaque's premises, but he was told that other centers in the state accepting Medicaid and equipped to take care of a child dependent on ventilation, as his son may have up to one. – year of waiting, according to da Costa.

30 Adenovirus Epidemic Patients in New Jersey, Including 10 Deceased Children

The lawsuit alleges that the facility failed to provide the care that DelGrosso needed to prevent the spread of such an infection.

"At the time of the first case of adenovirus", indicates the trial, the institution "had not put in place appropriate programs, protocols or procedures for the prevention and control of infections in order to remedy the infection and prevent it from spreading to its residents in pediatrics ".

The complaint also alleges that the facility did not send patients to acute care hospitals on an ad hoc basis, nor did it notify the parents earlier, about the time it contacted the Department of Health. State health about the outbreak on October 9.

Costigan told da Costa that "she was never informed that her son had high fevers for several days before telling him that he was to be transferred immediately to an acute care hospital", a- he declared. And she was not informed of the adenovirus epidemic until a standard letter arrived at the post office four days later, he added. .

In statements last month, the Wanaque center said it was working alongside health experts to investigate the outbreak and that it "promptly informed all concerned government agencies when the virus had been identified for the first time ". The property has not responded to previous requests for additional comments.

Da Costa says that the lawsuit does not only concern Costigan's son; it is "children like William, unable to speak for themselves and take care of themselves".

The lawsuit refers to health inspections dating back several years, including an unannounced inspection on October 21 that revealed poor hand hygiene practices among staff. This inspection took place after health officials alerted health officials, but before the health department publicly announced the deaths of people.
The facility has received and corrected other defects in the past, including improperly stored syringes, used to measure liquid medications, as well as poorly cleaned and disinfected medicine tables and trays.

Dr. Shereef Elnahal, commissioner of the New Jersey Ministry of Health, described the latter as "minor deficiencies of less importance" resolved during the new inspection of health inspectors.

If it's not flu, you could be sick because of this virus
In a review conducted by the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Wanaque center was rated above average in terms of overall quality, but a health inspection index lower than average. The rating is based on two years of inspections before November 2017. The Wanaque installation failures have always been below the US average.

"It is rare that during an inspection, an installation produces quotations without quotations," Elnahal said. "If there are a number of quotes, all of low level, we ask for a correction plan.We make sure that the installation works well – and that 's right. did this installation do here.

"If the conclusions are serious enough that we can take other measures, we will do it," he added.

Infections and deaths occur amid questions – former Wanaque Center employees, the mother of one of the deceased children and Elnahal himself – about whether the current standards of facilities are sufficiently high and if any other measures could have been taken to prevent this.
Elnahal had previously said in a statement that the findings of the most recent health inspection at the Wanaque center "raise questions as to whether these general standards of long-term care are optimal for this vulnerable population of frail children on the medical plan ".

"We must also ask ourselves if we can do more, as health officials, to protect immunocompromised children, such as those served at the Wanaque Center," he said.

"Every year in the state, there are hundreds of outbreaks in health facilities."

"We take aggressive action"

Adenoviruses are often transmitted by touching a contaminated person or surface, or by air while coughing or sneezing. They are known to persist on soiled medical surfaces and instruments for long periods of time. They may not be eliminated by common disinfectants, but they rarely cause serious illness in healthy people.

However, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have a higher risk of acquiring a serious illness and remain contagious long after recovery.

Symptoms can appear two to 14 days after exposure to the virus.

At the Wanaque Health Center, patients with confirmed cases became ill between September 26 and November 8, according to the health department. The number has increased from 18 cases, including six deaths, announced last month by the Department of Health.
The outbreak in the Wanaque plant was caused by a type 7 adenovirus. This type is "most often associated with acute respiratory disease," according to the CDC. Other types of adenovirus infections can cause flu-like symptoms, pinkeye and diarrhea.
Health officials say that they are stepping up their efforts to strengthen the fight against infections in such establishments in the state. The health department announced last week its intention to deploy this month a team of infection prevention experts to the University Hospital and four pediatric long-term care facilities, including clinics. Wanaque and Voorhees institutions. infections.
"Epidemics in institutions are not always preventable, but in response to what we've seen in Wanaque, we are taking aggressive action to minimize the risk of occurrence among New Jersey's most vulnerable patients," Elnahal said. a statement released last week.

The facility has been "charged with not admitting new patients until the end of the epidemic and that they are in full compliance," according to the health department of the ########################################################################> 39; State. Public health officials said the outbreak could only be declared after four weeks without further case.

"It can be difficult, if not impossible, to know how the virus has arrived in the institution, what is the source or what is its specific mechanism of spreading from one person to the other", said Elnahal.

Olivia Kiely and Kristina Sgueglia from CNN contributed to this report.

[ad_2]
Source link