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London, Ont. hospital fears 'mad cow'
By JOHN MINER -- London Free Press
London Health Sciences Centre president Cliff Nordal at a news conference, Dec. 5, 2006. (DEREK RUTTAN/LONDON FREE PRESS)
University Hospital has cancelled all surgeries, most medical procedures and diverted ambulances away from the site following the discovery of a patient who may have the human version of mad-cow disease.
The patient had brain surgery Nov. 30, leading to the possibility that surgical and other medical instruments may have been contaminated with the brain-wasting Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.
A pathologist examining tissue samples alerted the hospital to the possibility Monday night.
Tests to determine if it is CJD will be completed later this week.
"I want to stress that at this point we are talking about a potential risk. We have not confirmed a diagnosis of CJD and therefore cannot confirm that any instruments were in fact contaminated," said London Health Sciences Centre president Cliff Nordal
Nordal said hospital officials are still adding up the number of patients that might have been in contact with contaminated instruments and it could be upwards of 1,500.
The hospital has opened a patient information line — 1-866-313-5528 — and posted information on its website: www.lhsc.on.ca.
If the diagnosis turns out to be CJD, it will almost certainly be the "classical type" and not the "variant CJD" that is associated with eating beef from infected cows, according to hospital officials.
"It would be classical CJD, almost for sure," said a hospital pathologist.
The disease, which is always fatal, hits about one in a million people.
The hospital's operating rooms will remain closed tomorrow and medical procedures requiring the use of sterile equipment will be suspended.
"As we learn more information we will make decisions (Wednesday) if necessary about the following day. This will be a rolling-out process," said Nordal.
Upon learning of the possibility of CJD, University Hospital staff removed all medical and surgical instruments from the hospital's sterile processing centre.
The number of instruments involved would be in the thousands, Nordal said.
The hospital is now looking to borrow instruments from other hospitals and obtain new disposable instruments, he said.
The instruments used to operate on the patient were sterilized following regular procedures, Nordal said, but CJD, which isn't entirely eliminated by sterilization, was never suspected.
"Had we suspected the patient could have had CJD we would have isolated those instruments," he said.
Chief of staff Dr. Ian Herrick said elective surgeries have been cut back at other London hospitals in case they are needed to handle emergencies that would normally have been accommodated at University Hospital.
"It does significantly reduce our capacity to address surgical cases," he said.
While University Hospital has cancelled all of its surgeries, it still has enough medical instruments left to look after patients in life-threatening situations, said Dr. John Denstedt, citywide head of surgery.
"For those patients with life-threatening injuries who are too unstable to transfer to the other hospital we do have the ability to look after them here," Denstedt said.
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