Seattle Children’s Hospital says operating rooms free of mold
Jul 3, 2019, 3:01 PM | Updated: 4:40 pm
Seattle Children's Hospital (KIRO 7 file photo)
(KIRO 7 file photo)
After a brief closure, Seattle Children’s Hospital announced on Wednesday that operating rooms are now free of Aspergillus mold. They will reopen on July 4.
The hospital issued a statement on Wednesday. In part:
We are very sorry for the impact the air quality issue in our operating rooms has had on our patients and families. Maintaining a safe environment for our patients is our highest priority and over the course of the past six weeks we worked diligently to implement extensive improvements and corrective actions so that we can safely reopen our operating rooms.
Seattle Children’s Hospital reported one death and five additional infections from Aspergillus that had previously forced the facility to close its main operating rooms.
According to a report from The Seattle Times, the patient who died was infected in 2018. The operating rooms were initially shut down on May 18, after air tests detected a potentially dangerous fungus known as Aspergillus. The remaining 10 were closed six days later. On May 24, the hospital contacted patients and families who had surgery on the main campus in the previous four months to alert them of possible exposure to Aspergillus and of the symptoms.
Three of the affected patients were infected in 2018, while the other three contracted infections from the mold this year.
“We are deeply saddened that one of these patients died after developing an infection in 2018,” the Wednesday statement read.
Aspergillus is common and usually harmless. But, according to the Centers for Disease Control, people with weakened immune systems or lung diseases who are exposed are susceptible to allergic reactions and infections.
The hospital told the Times that its operating rooms have been infected off and on for “about a year,” due to issues with the room’s air handling and purification systems. In May, representatives from the hospital told KIRO Radio that the risk to patients from the mold was “very low.”
Since the closures six weeks ago, Seattle Children’s Hospital said it has implemented several improvements, including decommissioning the previous air handling and purification systems, installing and testing a new humidification system, sealing potential sources of air leaks in all of the operating rooms, and deep cleaning all of the operating rooms including with ultraviolet light.
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