CDC won't say number of patients exposed to bleach

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CDC won't say number of patients exposed to bleach

By JESSICA SAVAGE
The Lufkin Daily News

Saturday, April 04, 2009

A federal health department analyzing the blood work of DaVita dialysis patients who may have been exposed to bleach at the center last year has refused to release the number of patients it tested.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently denied a public information request submitted by The Lufkin Daily News in July 2008. The written request asked for the number of patients whose blood was tested for bleach and the number of patients whose blood results tested positive for the toxic chemical.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — a branch of the DHHS — sent a letter to the newspaper April 2, clarifying its reason for denying the request.

"Because this matter continues to be under investigation, documents pertaining to the investigation were withheld under authority of the Freedom of Information Act," the letter stated.

The FOI Act does not require public entities to release information considered under investigation.

Federal health officials became involved in a massive health investigation late April 2008 after a spate of patient deaths and illnesses at the Lufkin dialysis center. Investigators spent weeks combing through patient documents and preserving dialysis equipment for forensic testing.

An Angelina County grand jury on Tuesday shed more light on the investigation when it indicted a former DaVita nurse on charges she injected 10 patients with bleach, killing five of them.

Lufkin Police had previously charged the former DaVita nurse with injecting two patients with bleach. A statement released then stated two witnesses saw Saenz fill a syringe with bleach and inject the substance into two patients' dialysis lines. Both patients lived.

Saenz's attorney, John Henry Tatum II, has not returned numerous phone calls for comment.

The former nurse allegedly told police she drew up bleach in a syringe to measure for a cleaning solution. Saenz also said she administered saline to a patient because her venous chamber was clotting during her dialysis — information she documented in the patient's charge, according to previous reports from police. It remains unclear how many patients may have had bleach in their system while in the care of DaVita last year.

A state health survey report conducted while the facility was closed last year showed 19 patient deaths occurred at the facility in a five-month period before the center closed.

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