Duke Health sues over hydraulic mix-up

RALEIGH Nearly 4,000 patients, who had surgeries at Duke Health Raleigh and Durham Regional in late 2004, were told their surgical instruments may have been washed in used elevator hydraulic fluid.

The mistake happened when an elevator repair crew drained the fluid from a hospital parking deck elevator into empty detergent barrels.

Those barrels were picked up and later delivered to hospitals as detergent.

Duke is now suing a company called Aramark, which is responsible for servicing washing machines at Duke.

It claims Aramarks reps should have caught the problem during one of several service calls about greasy instruments.

Duke continued performing surgeries for two months before the problem was fixed.