Grilled About Deadly Superbug Outbreaks, Execs At Scope Maker Olympus Takes Fifth

In a court filing in the Washington state case, Olympus “denies it is liable to plaintiff in any manner” and said the alleged injuries to Richard Bigler “may have been the result of unforeseeable circumstances and reasons beyond the control” of the company.Olympus said the hospital involved, Virginia Mason Medical Center, failed to follow the instructions for cleaning the scopes.

At Virginia Mason, 39 people became infected from contaminated Olympus scopes and 18 of them died. The hospital said the patients who died had other underlying illnesses.

Rando Wick, an attorney representing the hospital, said it was disappointing that Olympus executives refused to answer questions, but he said it lends support for Virginia Mason’s case.

“Olympus in Japan knew of the dangers of the duodenoscopes not being able to be adequately disinfected even when Olympus guidelines are followed,” Wick said. “Yet they failed to notify health-care providers in the U.S. of this problem.”

John Gagliardi, a Seattle attorney representing the Bigler family, agreed it was a significant development. “You only take the Fifth if you think you could be in real trouble,” he said.

Next month, the attorneys said they are scheduled to depose Olympus executives in the U.S. They include Laura Storms, vice president of regulatory and clinical affairs at the company’s U.S. headquarters in Center Valley, Pa., and Donny Shapiro, a director of regulatory affairs in San Jose, Calif.

In an email on Jan. 31, 2013, Storms asked Nishina at Japan headquarters about warning U.S. hospitals. “Should [we] also be communicating to our [U.S.] users the information that [Olympus Europe] is communicating to their European users?” Storms asked.

After receiving the reply from Nishina, Storms wrote to Shapiro: “Donny, [Olympus Japan] has determined that a global communication is not required.”

Kaiser Health News is a national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.