Minneapolis

State asks hospitals to suspend knee surgeries Kavita Kumar and Mike Kaszuba Star Tribune

Published Nov 19 2001

The state Health Department on Sunday asked all hospitals and surgery centers in Minnesota to suspend elective knee surgeries for one week after the sudden deaths of three men.

Preliminary tests indicate that a rare type of bacteria was in the blood of one of the men.

Each of the men died after having some form of knee surgery. Two had surgery at St. Cloud Hospital, and the third man died Friday at Douglas County Hospital in Alexandria, about 70 miles away.

Dr. Harry Hull, state epidemiologist, called the request a precaution and said public health officials in bordering states were advised of the situation in Minnesota. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta was involved in the investigation, Hull said.

"We are doing a very intensive investigation and working with the CDC to find out the source of these deaths," he said.

On Nov. 11, Brian Lykins, 23, and Wayne Hulterstrum, 78, died after having surgery at St. Cloud Hospital. A man in his mid-60s died on Friday at Douglas County Hospital, three days after surgery. The identity of the third man was not immediately known.

Preliminary tests show that the bacteria clostridium may have been identified in the blood of one of the men, Hull said. A small amount of the rare bacteria can cause major illness. Final test results will be available later this week.

Hull said health officials did not suspect foul play, adding: "We have no reason to believe this is bioterrorism."

All three men were in good physical health before their surgery and became ill one to four days after going home. Each man's condition rapidly deteriorated and included a sudden drop in blood pressure, health officials said.

While blood samples have been taken from two of the bodies, the body of one of the men was embalmed before it could be tested, complicating the investigation, Hull said.

"If we do not find additional cases, we just may run into a dead end. But we would rather run into a dead end than have additional patients," he said.

Two of the men had knee-replacement surgery; the other had what Hull called a cartilage graft.

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001

Answers

That is such a weird deal--they even asked hospitals in South Dakota to suspend elective knee surgeries.

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001