When John Harrison went into the hospital for a simple rotator cuff surgery, he expected a quick recovery. Instead, Harrison caught a virulent infection that ate away his shoulder and left him disabled.
The culprit? A dirty medical device used in his surgery that contained an infection from a previous patient.
This story exposes the growing problem of dirty surgical devices in operating rooms. It also tells the story of the underpaid and overwhelmed workers who clean and disinfect highly-complex instruments between surgeries.
