SEATTLE — A King County jury has begun deliberating a case against Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Four families are the first of 77 plaintiffs who have sued, claiming that their children were exposed to Aspergillus mold during procedures at the hospital during 2019.
None of the plaintiffs were infected with the potentially deadly mold. But during two weeks of trial they testified that their children were subjected to stressful or painful anti-fungal treatments, after medical staff notified them of the possible exposure during medical procedures.
In 2019, after the King 5 Investigators received tell-tale documents from the public health department, Seattle Children’s announced that six children had died since 2001 from Aspergillus mold in its operating rooms. At least 14 other young patients had been infected and treated. A seventh baby, Elizabeth Hutt, died from Aspergillus the following year.
“We were told that if she doesn’t take (medication) she could die,” Jared Kaplan testified that doctors said after notifying him that his daughter Westin could have been exposed to Aspergillus during open heart surgery. He said the blood draws and anti-fungal treatments were harsh on his fragile daughter who had survived a nine hour surgery. “(She was) writhing around, screaming at the top of her lungs. She was screaming so hard she was blue,” Kaplan told the jury.
Seattle Children’s has accepted liability for exposure to the mold risk. The jury must decide what, if any, damages the hospital should pay.
The hospital’s defense team said the anti-fungal medications typically do not have side effects and two of the plaintiff’s children suffered no complications at all.
“Very importantly, none of the plaintiffs ever developed infections or got sick from Aspergillus,” defense counsel Caitlin Spencer said.
Aspergillus was a reoccurring problem in some of the hospital’s older operating rooms for 18 years. While the hospital never disclosed the cause, records reviewed by the KING 5 Investigators showed that gaps in the filters in the OR’s sophisticated ventilation systems likely allowed the mold growth. The hospital says it has since replaced all of those systems with advanced HEPA filters.
The current trial in King County is expected to be a “bellwether” case for the remaining 70 plus plaintiffs whose children were not infected by mold, but who were subjected to precautionary anti-fungal treatments.
The Seattle law firm of Stritmatter Kessler Koehler Moore says there are approximately 20 other plaintiffs whose children were allegedly infected with Aspergillus who are still awaiting civil trials.