The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center voluntarily suspended transplants at UMC Presbyterian after three transplants. Another patient who didn’t stay in the unit but in the other campus of the hospital called Montefiore also died in what could be a “fungal infection”.
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A Pittsburgh hospital is working to find and eradicate the source of a rare mold that may have contributed to the deaths of three transplant patients and left a fourth person in “guarded condition”, a hospital spokeswoman said on Monday.
The hospital released a statement regarding the matter, that reads, “In consultation with the United Network for Organ Sharing, the nonprofit organization that manages the nation’s organ transplant system, UPMC has chosen to voluntarily and temporarily suspend all organ transplant operations at UPMC Presbyterian until we have completed our investigation and are satisfied that we’ve done all we can do to address the situation”. At this point, there’s no correlation between any other patient deaths and the mold, but Nicholls says her family is hoping to learn more as UPMC does its investigation. That patient remains hospitalized with a poor prognosis says WPXI News.
WTAE reported that the first two patients who died stayed in the same room in the cardiothoracic ICU at UPMC Presbyterian. Shapiro told the Tribune-Review, “This obviously says there was more to it than just a single room”.
UPMC is also checking air seals around windows and doors as well as medical equipment. “We are looking at all possibilities”.
Then, on September 17, a liver transplant patient at UPMC Montefiore died. “This prophylactic treatment is meant to protect them until we find and fix the source of this problem”, a statement said. CNN reports that the initial inspection found mold inside the wall of the room that is now closed.
The hospital also said a team from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be there tomorrow to investigate the mold outbreak.
The mold, commonly found on decaying plants, poses little risk to most people but can occasionally cause fungal infections in transplant patients with compromised immune systems, Shapiro wrote.
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To combat with the possible infection, the hospital is treating their susceptible patients with anti-fungal drugs even if they are not showing any symptom.
