SPOKANE, Wash. — For the first time, we are hearing from a family in eastern Washington impacted by Seattle Children's Hospital's mold issue.
A Spokane lawyer claims a 12-year-old girl almost died — not from her surgery but from complications related to mold in the operating room.
Since 2014, 14 patients have developed an Aspergillus infection. Six of them died according to Seattle Children's Hospital.
Shanna Patnode is one of those cases that developed an infection.
At the age of 12, doctors found a tumor in her brain, so they sent the Patnode family from Yakima to Seattle Children's Hospital for surgery.
"They sent us there because it's supposed to be the best facility in the region," Shanna's father, Eugene Patnode said. "We had a whole lot of trust and faith and hope in Children's hospital."
The surgery was a success. She started doing physical therapy and made great progress.
But a short time later, she started to get severe back pain.
"She was doing so well after surgery that we thought, oh this is great! We're out of the woods," Shanna's mother, Clarissa Patnode, said. "I was all ready to bring her home and then all of a sudden she took a horrible turn down."
Shanna's parents insisted on a biopsy. The results shook them to the core.
"He said her spinal cord was wrapped in a black sticky caulk like material and that it had been identified as fungus," Clarissa said. "And the only way it got in her spinal column and brain was through surgery."
The hospital claimed it was an isolated incident.
"They refused to acknowledge anything, they would volunteer nothing, and then it was a battle just to get her treatment," Eugene said.
Shanna believe the hospital was withholding the truth.
"They wouldn't tell [us]," Shanna said. "In the very beginning, when I had back pain, they should have been like--black mold. But they didn't."
Shanna spent nine months in the hospital, about seven months longer than expected. She went through long-term rehab, and now lives with a permanent disability.
"I still have back pain. Not as bad, but it has its moments," Shanna said.
The Patnode's filed a lawsuit against Seattle Children's in 2005, and reached a settlement with the hospital in 2008. But they thought the mold would have been dealt with by now.
"I'm just frustrated they haven't fixed the problem," Clarissa said. "I mean, we gave it to them on a silver platter, and here it is again 16 years later. Why?"
The hospital responded to Shanna's case, specifically, in a statement saying, "We're deeply sorry for the impact this infection has on this patient and her family. We now believe that these infections were likely caused by the air handling systems that serve our operating rooms."
But it just announced this week the hospital will install a new rooftop air handler and new filters in every operating room. That will take until January.
Until then, most operating rooms are closed.