Emily Sortor  |  January 27, 2020

Category: Legal News

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HIV and other bloodborne pathogensFormer patients at the Cherokee Nation’s W.W. Hastings Hospital in Tahlequah, Okla. have accused the hospital of exposing patients to pathogens like HIV, hepatitis C, hepatitis B, and others during their treatment.

Plaintiffs Sherry Lynn Faulkner and Janet Gail Garvin say they were patients at W.W. Hastings Hospital and during the course of their treatment were exposed to various blood born pathogens and infectious diseases.

According to the W.W. Hastings Hospital class action lawsuit, Faulkner underwent carpal tunnel surgery at the hospital in February 2018 while Garvin underwent a colonoscopy in April 2018. The two patients say that they both had their blood drawn prior to their procedures. 

Allegedly, Garvin, Faulkner, and more than 180 more patients were exposed to blood borne pathogens and infectious diseases as the result of the actions of a nurse.

According to the Hastings HIV class action lawsuit, a nurse employed by the hospital violated health and safety protocols by reusing syringes, needles, and vials when administering medications from intravenous bags.

Garvin and Faulkner say that in May and June 2018, respectively, they were informed that they may have been exposed to HIV, hepatitis C, and other infectious diseases during their care.

They were told that they had to undergo blood screening to determine whether or not they had been infected with the diseases. Allegedly, many other patients received similar messages and were advised to have blood testing done to determine if they had been exposed to pathogens.

The hospital HIV class action says that the diseases to which patients were exposed included, but were not limited to, “syphilis, malaria, babesiosis, brucellosis, cytomegalovirus, leptospirosis, arboviral infections, relapsing fever, Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease, human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 and viral hemorrhagic fever.”

According to the patient, both the nurse and W.W. Hastings Hospital were aware of or should have been aware of the safety protocols around the use of needles and syringes.

Additionally, the patients argue that the nurse and the hospital were or should have been aware that the violation of these protocols could put patients at risk for contracting infectious diseases.

The plaintiffs aim to hold the hospital responsible for the nurse’s alleged negligence, because he employed by the hospital.

The patients in the W.W. Hastings class action lawsuit say they were injured in multiple ways because of the hospital and the nurse’s negligence, in the form of emotional distress, the infliction of physical injury, and the potential for further injury in the form of infection.

Have you ever contracted an infection from treatment at a hospital? Tell us about it in the comments below.

The patients are represented by Fourth Scoufos of Scoufos Law Offices PC.

The W.W. Hastings Hospital HIV Infection Class Action Lawsuit is Faulkner, et al. v. W.W. Hastings Hospital, Case No. 6:20-00022-RAW, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

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4 thoughts onOkla. Hospital Accused Of Exposing Patients to HIV

  1. LeeAnn Drain says:

    My husband had surgery in may of 2023 they stapled his wound up and left gauze in his wound had to have er take it out 2 days later he had mrsa and staph and cellulitis, he just had his 7th surgery cause they can’t stop the infection, and his knee removed 2 times

  2. Virginia Sue Berry says:

    I haven’t been in that situation but I have been done wrong by Hastings and the Dental Department. They put implants in me and got a recall notice for them they kept it from me for 2 years and kept trying to convince me it was me needing pain killers. I needed them okay but I was in excruciating pain. I got a recall notice from the FDA telling me to get to my doctor and be evaluated. Well I went back to them time and time again finally due to the pain they took them out but in fragments 13 pieces and the fragments they couldn’t get out. They told me they couldn’t get them out. I took the class action suit to my husbands attorney and I never heard anything from it to this day. He talked me into filing a lawsuit. I was in to much pain to remember much of what happened. All I remember is everyone that attended the court hearing telling me I should win but I didn’t and after I couldn’t get the lawyer to talk to me about it he just said it is over so move on. I don’t know why I lost. I was told by a member of the Cherokee Nation council that money was exchanged but he didn’t know who got it. I assured him I didn’t. I had told the attorney that I just wanted to make sure that I got my TMJ taken care of for as long as needed. The Cherokee Nation dental assured the court by The head of the department Dr. Jones that they would take care of me but after the court they wouldn’t take care of me after the surgery in September of 1995 and the final hearing. They will clean my teeth but won’t take care of my TMJ. The last time I was over there I didn’t recognize the surgeon that suggested the vitech proplast implant. When I put my glasses back on and the surgeon came back in I could see it was the surgeon. Now the only ones I remember the names are Dr. Jones, Dr. Stucky, and the Dentist at Mankiller who tried to help me and was stopped by Dr. Jones.

  3. jody A ezell says:

    Please add me

  4. Teri Mathews says:

    Please add me

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