Last July, attorney Brent Adams said a Duke University Health System mishap that his client claimed had caused him infection and debilitating medical problems was "anything but over."
Adams was right.
Attorneys representing Bennie Holland revived a lawsuit accusing DUHS of negligence last week, The Raleigh News & Observer reported Thursday.
In November 2004, DUHS staff accidentally washed surgical tools in used elevator hydraulic fluid for two months, resulting in the use of tainted instruments to treat approximately 3,800 patients.
Holland's suit alleges that the back surgery he received at Duke Health Raleigh Hospital Nov. 10, 2004, caused him a severe infection and chronic pain, The N&O reported.
As a policy, DUHS does not comment on matters of litigations, according to a statement released in response to the first lawsuit.
"We regret this incident occurred, but stand by the results of independent studies and our own analyses... [which] confirmed that the surgical instruments were fully sterile," DUHS officials wrote in the statement issued in July 2006.
Holland's previous lawsuit was withdrawn without prejudice in August 2006, which allowed him to re-file the case at a later date. Holland said he wanted the jury to hear the case in open court, The Herald-Sun reported last July.
He was also the first of eight patients to file lawsuits against Automatic Elevator Co. of Durham and Cardinal Health, a medical supplies company, beginning in March 2005.
Employees of Automatic Elevator Co. of Durham had mistakenly filled empty detergent containers with the used hydraulic fluid in September 2004. Cardinal Health redistributed the fluid to Duke Health Raleigh Hospital and Durham Regional Hospital in the same month.
Holland first named DUHS as a plaintiff in July 2006. At the time of his surgery, he did not file a lawsuit against Duke Health Raleigh because he was still being treated there, The Chronicle reported last April.
In response to the incident, Duke officials created a website-hydraulicfluidfacts.dukehealth.org-and a hotline for patients with concerns relating to exposure.
A long-term monitoring program for patients is currently managed by a third party, PharmaLinkFHI.
It is not known whether other patients have recently filed any lawsuits against DUHS, or why Holland chose to revive his lawsuit last week.
Neither Holland nor Adams could be reached for comment Sunday.
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