U.S. hospitals reusing disposable devices

WASHINGTON, Dec 11, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A large number of U.S. hospitals are reusing one-time medical devices to save money, but breakdowns have been causing injuries, The Washington Post reports.

It was only last year the Food and Drug Administration began requiring hospitals to report if a malfunctioning device had been reprocessed, but the newspaper said after reviewing thousands of documents, the practice appears widespread.

In one instance, an electrode from a catheter broke off in a patient's heart. In another, a patient's eyeball was impaled. And an infant who for months gagged on a re-sterilized tracheal tube now can take food only from a tube attached to his stomach.

The National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, where the president gets his checkup, at first said it did not use reprocessed devices. But after The Post independently confirmed that it does, the medical center said it does use them on a limited basis.

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