Health Highlights: Aug 20, 2015

• Tweet
• Pin It

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Patients Infected With ‘Superbug’ After Medical Scope Procedures at California Hospital

Several patients at a Los Angeles-area hospital became infected with an antibiotic resistant “superbug” after undergoing procedures with a medical scope used in the digestive tract.

Health officials were notified after the patients were diagnosed with pseudomonas bacteria after procedures using Olympus Corp. duodenoscopes, Huntington Memorial Hospital said in a statement, the Associated Press reported.

Hospital officials said the scopes have been quarantined during an investigation to determine if they are linked to the infections. The hospital did not divulge the total number of infected patients or their conditions.

The reusable medical scopes have been linked to a number of drug-resistant bacterial infections across the United States, the AP reported.

—–

‘90210’s’ Shannen Doherty Has Breast Cancer

Television star Shannen Doherty was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in March, but says its discovery was delayed because her former business managers did not pay her health insurance premium last year.

The 44-year-old former Beverly Hills, 90210 star’s health crisis was made public Wednesday when she filed suit against Los Angeles accounting firm Tanner Mainstain Glynn & Johnson and its former partner, Steven D. Blatt. Doherty accuses them of mismanagement, USA Today reported.

In the lawsuit, Doherty said her doctors told her that earlier treatment of her breast cancer may have prevented its spread.

She claims that her health insurance was canceled last year because her former business managers did not pay the premium. Doherty said she wasn’t able to get health insurance again until the following year and, because she had no coverage, she did not visit her doctors or get a cancer checkup, USA Today reported.

Because her cancer has spread, it is likely she will need more aggressive treatments, such as breast removal. Such treatment may not have been necessary if the cancer had been detected earlier, Doherty contends.

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

• Tweet
• Pin It