A sterilization technician at northern Indiana hospital failed to properly disinfect surgical tools, possibly affecting more than 1,000 patients who underwent surgery at the facility in recent months, the hospital said this week. In a recent letter to patients, officials with Hospital in Goshen, Ind., said that “one step in a multi-step cleaning process was not completed with certain surgical instruments in a limited number of cases,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by news channel. This means the patients may have been exposed to diseases such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV, hospital officials said.
“The surgical instruments in question were still treated with our usual chemical disinfection and machine sterilization processes which include a wide margin of safety; however, such instruments may or may not have been completely sterile,” the letter continues. Patients…
