Headlines about health issues usually don’t touch me personally. I read them or hear them on the news and then think, “How terrible for the people involved.” Imagine my surprise a few days ago when I turn on CNN Headline News, as I do every morning, and find myself (and probably 40,000 or so other Las Vegas residents) in the middle of a medical scare. I had undergone both a colonoscopy and an endoscopy at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, a medical clinic under fire by health authorities when it was found that they routinely reused syringes and vials of medicine when administering anesthesia.
The City of Las Vegas has shut down the facility, and the Southern Nevada Health District has sent letters to around 40,000 patients who had procedures there between March 2004 and Jan. 11 of this year. In the letter I received they recommend we get tested for hepatitis C, hepatitis B, and HIV, all of which can be contracted by blood-to-blood transfer. Since I have no symptoms, I will probably wait a couple of weeks to get the blood tests since I figure the labs will have long lines this next week or so.
I knew the lawyers would not be long behind this scandal, and immediately the newspaper and the airwaves were full of their ads. I am not the litigating type but I imagine I will be a party to a class-action suit.
I am taking the attitude suggested by health officials to be “concerned but not overly afraid.” One lawyer has stated that there might be more than 100 people who will end up being infected by one the diseases. Humm … 100 out of 40,000. As a person who gambles by the book, I know this has a negative EV for me. I prefer zero odds, but I guess I am happy with the tiny risk area I am in – at least until the results of my blood tests come back.