D.C. hospital sewage leaks linked to death
It’s the go-to emergency stop for Washington VIPs
New lawsuit at go-to hospital for Congress alleges more sewage leaks
“A black, grainy foul-smelling substance” coated the floor of an operating room at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center, according to a review by the District of Columbia health department in August that is cited in a lawsuit filed against the hospital.
The hospital had at least one “active leak” of sewage, according to the report. The lawsuit against the hospital was filed March 15 by the husband of a woman who died from a post-operative infection after surgery.
Carol Leonard, 70, had thyroid surgery in February 2017 at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, which is the goto hospital for Congress and the White House. The surgery was so routine, she was told she’d be out the next morning or possibly the same day.
Within a week, the grandmother of six was dead.
Leonard’s surgery came five months after the District’s health department issued a report that detailed sewage leaks in several operating rooms and was only recently released. Investigators returned Aug. 18, 2017, to find persistent problems with sewage.
Staff and contractors the hospital identified as being responsible for cleanup told investigators they were not made aware of a leak in the room where several patients were operated on last July, according to the health department report reviewed by USA TODAY. The sewage leaks were known as “black water” leaks, employees told the inspectors.
“MedStar Washington Hospital Center has not experienced any new leaks, and we have completed all of the physical plant work identified in our 2017 action plan,” Washington Hospital Center spokeswoman So Young Pak said in a statement.
The recent report shows the hospital was placed in “immediate jeopardy” of losing its Medicare and Medicaid funding because of its failure to protect patients. Since the government tends to be one of the largest payers for hospitals, losing accreditation can be devastating.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services defines immediate jeopardy as “a situation in which the provider’s non-compliance with one or more requirements of participation has caused, or is likely to cause, serious injury, harm, impairment, or death to a resident.” Once a hospital gets this rating, CMS terminates its accreditation if it doesn’t meet a deadline for compliance. Washington Hospital Center submitted a plan for correction the night of Aug. 18 and the designation was removed Aug. 21.
“A hospital that is not correcting problems that could pose a real risk of infections to patients, including leaking sewage, unless prodded and required to do so under the threat of a state inspector’s closure due to a declared ‘ imminent jeopardy’ status is not what the
“It’s important to me that it continues to be about a person. There’s a person and a family that’s really been harmed.”
Eugene Leonard
public envisions or anticipates when seeking care,” said infection control expert and consultant Larry Muscarella, who writes a blog called Discussions in Infection Control.
Gregory Argyros, Washington Hospital Center’s chief medical officer, called it “the most important hospital in the most important city in the most important country in the world,” during an interview Aug. 27.
It is the largest trauma center and busiest emergency room in the D.C. area and caters primarily to a lower-income, African-American population when it isn’t treating VIPs, such as Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., who was taken to the hospital after he was shot at a congressional baseball practice last summer.
“It’s important to me that it continues to be about a person,” Eugene Leonard, Carol’s husband, said about the lawsuit. “There’s a person and a family that’s really been harmed.”
Even though her thyroid cancer was at an early stage and slow-growing, Carol didn’t want to wait months to have the surgery, her husband said.
Eugene Leonard, who lives in Falls Church, Va., said his family chose the hospital based on advertising it saw about its thyroid practice and other physicians’ recommendations.
Two of the couple’s three daughters are doctors, and Erica Leonard, a palliative care doctor in Pennsylvania, said she did online research about the surgeon, but not the hospital, because of the relatively minor nature of the procedure. The surgeon also said her practice at the hospital did more thyroid surgeries than any other in the country, Erica Leonard said.
The lawsuit alleges Leonard contracted a strep infection and then sepsis while in the hospital.
Thyroid surgery “is supposed to be relatively simple, they are in and they are out, and the risk of infection is generally really low,” said attorney Scott Perry, who represents Eugene Leonard.
Along with the sewage leaks in operating rooms, Eugene Leonard’s lawsuit raises questions about whether the hospital should have given Carol Leonard antibiotics before the surgery because of the hospital’s infection risks.
Physicians have to weigh the “risks of giving antibiotics to all patients having surgery against the risk and complications of a surgical site infection for the operation being performed,” said Dale Bratzler, a physician and professor at Oklahoma University college of medicine and co-author of three sets of medical society guidelines on prevention of surgical infections.
Although Washington Hospital Center said it couldn’t comment on a pending lawsuit, Pak said in a statement, “We are very sorry for the Leonard family’s loss.”