Seattle Children's mold problem goes back 20 years

Seattle Children's Hospital has just revealed more infections related to its mold contamination. "We failed", says the hospital's CEO.

Mold-related infections and deaths actually go back nearly 20 years at the hospital.

CEO Jeff Sperring announced Monday that six patients have died between 2001 and 2019 from Aspergillus mold infections. 14 total patients were infected over that time.

The first was a patient who died in 2001. The most recent death was a patient in July of this year.

Asked why the hospital has not made this information clear before, Sperring says they did not make the connection until now.

"At the time we believed that these were isolated incidents, we now believe that these infections were likely caused by the air handling system that served our operating rooms," he says.

"Looking back, we should have made the connection sooner. Simply put, we failed."

Regarding the patients, little information was revealed about who they are and what their conditions were. It being a children's hospital, the patients were youth who had undergone surgery. Patients who are at risk of mold infection are those who already have sensitive or severe medical conditions.

Of the 14 that fell ill from mold infection, Sperring said "those are the patients that we know have been impacted, and they continue to fall in a very small category of the most complex, most complicated children that we take care of."

Aspergillus is a common mold in the air we breath, but can cause complications for some surgical patients.

When asked, Sperring said he would still send a child to get surgery at Seattle Children's.

Nearly all of the operating rooms (10 of 14), are closed from now until January. Seattle Children's is going to install a new air handler on the roof and custom air filters in each operating room. The High Efficiency Particulate Air filters are the highest level on the market for hospitals, according to Sperring.

The hospital replaced its air filtration system in July, but has since detected more new cases.

Hospital officials are also examining the hospital's culture, leadership and other factors that led to this situation.

Outside of the hospital's own examination and repairs it will be under review by outside groups. The Washington State Department of Health is investigating the most recent outbreak of mold, which was detected November 10.

A DOH spokesperson said if they find deficiencies, the hospital has "a period of time to come up with a plan of correction to fix those problems, and then they're responsible to implement it." A spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says it's participating hospitals are required to be in compliance with the Conditions of Participation. A statement from CMS says "if a hospital is unable to achieve sustainable compliance, it faces the risk of termination from the Medicare/Medicaid program."

Seattle Children's did risk losing CMS support in summer 2019 because of this problem, but then got the all clear.

In addition, Seattle Children's Hospital is under legal scrutiny. A Whatcom County family has sued, claiming their son was disabled after he contracted meningitis from the mold.

People with more information to share can contact reporter Paige Browning, paige@kuow.org.