ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 19, 1996 TAG: 9603190103
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: TEMPLE, TEXAS
SOURCE: JUAN B. ELIZONDO JR. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cleaning solvent or some other contaminant in the newly installed oxygen equipment at a veterans hospital may have contributed to the deaths of four atients, officials said Monday.
The central oxygen system at the Olin E. Teague Veterans Center was switched over to equipment provided by a new contractor last Wednesday. Within 15 minutes, workers smelled an odor. Later that day, three patients who were gravely ill died. Another man, who was not as seriously ill, died Sunday.
Oxygen in the hospital was found to contain traces of trichloroethylene, a chemical in some cleaning solutions, said Laura Custer, a spokeswoman for Air Liquide, the Houston contractor that provided the new equipment.
Autopsies were being conducted on the four patients. The results could be available this week.
The remaining 85 patients who were exposed to the tainted oxygen were switched to bottled oxygen Wednesday and were doing well Monday, hospital spokeswoman Liz Crossan said. She said the patients will not be switched back to the central system until it is determined to be safe.
Twelve other veterans' hospitals across the country have had no problems since switching over to equipment provided by Air Liquide, a spokesman for the Department of Veterans Affairs said. Four other hospitals have been told to delay conversion to the contractor's equipment until further notice.
The patients who died were being treated in the intensive care unit and were very ill before they received the oxygen, hospital and county officials said.
``When this is all over with, we really don't believe that the oxygen will play a major part, if any at all, in the death of these individuals,'' said Bell County Justice of the Peace Eddie Lange, who is conducting the inquest.
Stephen Hodges, 46; Edwin Sladek, 74; and Douglas Saunders, 79, all died within hours of exposure to the oxygen. Davis Salazar, 71, died Sunday morning.
The hospital's central oxygen system moves oxygen from storage tanks outside the hospital, through air hoses into the center and through smaller hoses to wall panels inside patients' rooms. Patients' air hoses are connected to the wall panels.
Hospital officials say a cleaning solvent may have been left in a hose leading from one of the storage tanks.
Custer said Air Liquide bought the 50-foot hose from Precision Valve Modification Inc., a Houston rubber and gasket company that was responsible for having the hose cleaned for hospital use. Precision owner Ram Agrawal said it was given a routine cleaning with a trichloroethylene solution.
``We're stressing that there's no evidence of any connection between any deaths and this oxygen supply,'' said Air Liquide's Custer.
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB