Fungus That Infected 7 Patients Stumps Hospital

Officials at Riverside Community Hospital have failed to determine how a fungus infected seven heart surgery patients, prompting closure of the facility’s cardio-surgical unit.

The hospital’s medical board has scheduled a meeting Tuesday to decide when elective heart surgery and angioplasty may resume, said Robert A. Minkin, the hospital’s chief operating officer.

Non-emergency heart surgery and cardiac angioplasty were halted May 18 after four of the hospital’s heart surgeons reported a fungus, Candida albicans, growing in the chest incisions of seven patients. Angioplasty is a procedure that helps open clogged blood vessels.

The infections produced tenderness and small pimples and were discovered during post-operative examinations. The fungus is commonly found under the arms and in the genital area but does not usually develop into an infection in a patient with a healthy immune system.

Two of the patients who did not respond to oral medicines were readmitted and given more potent medication at the hospital.

“We’ve checked every conceivable place where the patients had contact in the hospital,” Minkin said. “We went to every place between the front door and point of discharge and found no discernible cause for the transmission.”

As a result of the outbreak, the hospital plans to monitor surgery patients released from the hospital for signs of infection, officials said.

Dr. Richard Thorsen, chief of disease control for the county health department, said the department is satisfied with the hospital’s investigation.

Dr. William R. Jarvis, a specialist with the Centers for Disease Control, said about 5% of all hospital patients acquire an infection while hospitalized. Up to 15% of heart surgery patients develop infections at the hospital, he said.

Riverside Community Hospital’s open-heart surgery program, the first to be developed in western Riverside County, began Jan. 19, 1987. The hospital performs about 200 heart surgeries a year.