Nearly 30 Men Receive Some of the Worst News Possible Following Invasive Medical Exams

Nearly 30 male patients who received exams in the last three months at the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle are being encouraged to have themselves tested for HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C after the facility found out last week it was not sterilizing probes properly.

According to KING-TV, 27 men who had prostate exams at  Swedish Medical Center from Sept. 19 to Dec. 10 were contacted by officials at the hospital and asked to have blood tests immediately. It was discovered on Dec. 17 that through "human error" one step in the sterilization process of the ultrasound probes was missed.

The hospital spokesman Clay Holtzman told the Seattle Times that with the three other steps properly followed the infection risk is "extremely low." But that's still not sitting well with patients who received the news.

"I was so enraged. I was like, 'Oh my God,'" one patient who was not named by KING said.

"You can say the odds are low but it's either yes or no for me," this patient told the news station.

Watch KING-TV's report:

"Certainly I'm upset and certainly I can understand why the patients would be upset," Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Vassall told KING.  "We want to do everything right for our patients all the time, every time. Unfortunately, in this case, we didn't."

Featured image via Shutterstock.

(H/T: KOMO-TV)

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