Anytime you or a loved one seek medical care, you assume that you will not only be treated by competent health care professionals, but you will also receive care with products that are safe, sterile, and trustworthy. It’s naive to think that this is always the case, however.
One more example of the dangers of health care in our country today (see our earlier post this week on The Nose Doctor for an example of provider negligence) is the growing tragedy resulting from the Triad Group sterile product line.
Triad medical products found not to be sterile but infected with bacteria
This week, after asking the company to do the right thing, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is taking steps to close down H&P Industries, a company that makes a variety medical products under the name Triad Group. Seems that the Triad products have all too often been involved in instances of patients being severely injured by infection or even dying from infection.
The FDA wants the company shut down. Why? Millions – that’s right, millions – of the purportedly sterile Triad products have been subjected to recall because they’ve haven’t been sterile. The Triad products have been contaminated with bacteria.
For example, earlier this year there was:
(1) a recall of Triad alcohol prep pads because millions and millions of these pads – as well as Triad swabs and swabsticks – were carrying bacteria (Bacillus cereus). These products were being used by hospitals and consumers alike.
(2) a recall of the company’s iodine prep pads along with its sterile lubricating jelly. Both were also found to not be sterile – as they were marketed to be – and in fact, contaminated with bacteria.
People are dying from these tainted medical products. Triad product liability lawsuits have already been filed in Texas and Tennessee.
Right now, the FDA and H&P Industries Inc. are purportedly negotiating for the company to voluntarily close. If the company balks, expect a cease and desist order to be issued.
Please check your medicine cabinet for these Triad products (check any sterile products you own against this long list of product names and lots numbers) – and do not use them if you find them.
