Physical Wellness

Hospital says a 4th Patient has died after being infected from Mold Outbreak

By Cheri Cheng | Update Date: Feb 08, 2016 11:34 AM EST

Another patient at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center who contracted an infection during a mold outbreak has died, health officials reported on Sunday.

The center said that the death, which is the fourth one tied to the outbreak, was in a 70-year-old man named Che DuVall. DuVall was diagnosed with a fungal infection in September, roughly one month after he underwent a double lung transplant. He had to remain at the hospital for treatment until he died this past Saturday.

"We extend our deepest sympathies to his family, as well as to our doctors and nurses who have worked with great compassion and skill to care for him," UPMC spokeswoman Allison Hydzik said in a statement reported by FOX News. "We again want to reassure our patients that we have taken every possible precaution to make our hospitals as safe as is humanly possible and have followed all recommendations made by federal and state regulators."

At the time of the outbreak, UPMC had suspended its transplant program for roughly one week after officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) concluded that four transplant patients were most likely infected after they were placed in a "negative pressure" room, which is typically used for patients who already have an infection.

Prior to DuVall's death, he and his wife, Karen, had filed a lawsuit against the hospital. The lawsuit claimed that the hospital had recklessly placed him in a room that ended up increasing his chances of infection.

"I would like to say goodbye to my best friend of the past 40 years," Karen wrote on Facebook, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "I will love and miss you every day."

UPMC did not comment about the lawsuit.

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