Having to go on dialysis is bad enough, but patients who received their treatment at Life Care Dialysis Center on West 61st Street have it even worse; at least one of them contracted Hepatitis C thanks to contaminated equipment! After inspecting the place last month, the Health Department shut it down, noting that employees failed to wash their hands, disinfect equipment or change gloves between patients. A spokesperson for the DOH tells the Times, “It was repulsive. The treatment chairs that they gave people to relax in had someone else’s dried blood on them.” On Monday the state’s health commissioner sent letters to 657 patients of the clinic urging them to get tested for hepatitis C, hepatitis B and H.I.V. Dr. Walter Wasser, the clinic’s operator and medical director, was fined $300,000 and could also lose his medical license, the Times reports.
Published Sep 17, 2008
Modified Sep 17, 2008
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