4th Patient Infected During Mold Outbreak At Hospital Dies

PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) - Officials say a fourth transplant patient who contracted a fungal infection during a mold outbreak at UPMC Presbyterian has died.

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center on Sunday confirmed the death of 70-year-old Che DuVall, who was diagnosed with the infection a month after undergoing a double lung transplant in August.

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Duvall had been housed in a negative pressure room, which is designed to bring air in from the outside, for those with suppressed immune systems.

Duvall and his wife Karen filed suit against the hospital last month, alleging the hospital had been reckless by putting him in a room, where is possible to develop an infection.

The suit claims that UPMC Presbyterian knew or should have know that placing post-transplant, imune-suppressed paitents in a negative pressure environment vastly increases the risk of patients contracting a myriad of life threatening infections.

In Dec. 2015, the Centers For Disease Control determined Duvall and two other other patients that died, had been in that negative pressurized room.

UPMC spokeswoman Allison Hydzik says the hospital extends its sympathies to his family and to medical personnel who have cared for him. She says officials want patients to know they have taken "every possible precaution to make our hospitals as safe as is humanly possible."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the patients likely got the mold infections from time spent in a "negative pressure" room normally reserved for those who already had infections.

Read the full statement from UPMC below:

It is with great sadness that we confirm the passing of Mr. Duvall, and 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. 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.

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