当地时间6月19日,美国佐治亚州亚特兰大市的一家媒体“11Alive”曝出一则爆炸性新闻:该州阿森斯市的一家医院护士指控医院操纵新冠肺炎核酸检测结果。
根据报道, 至少有4名护士指控他们所在的“地标医院”(Landmark Hospital)在对新冠肺炎核酸检测结果进行造假。
在递交给法院的起诉文件里,发起指控的护士们声称,医院故意操纵检测结果以掩盖院内的疫情。
In court documents filed this week, the nurses claimed Landmark Hospital in Athens intentionally manipulated test results to cover up an outbreak at the facility.
有两名护士,一位是该医院的在职员工,另一位是前员工,在匿名接受11Alive采访时,揭露了医院造假的操作过程。
一名护士在采访中称,“当他们发现有人检测呈阳性时,他们会重新再做一次检测,让结果呈阴性,然后他们就会说之前的是假阳性”。
"When they had someone who would turn out positive, they would re-do the test so that it would come back negative and they would say that it was a false positive," explained one of the nurses.
这名护士透露,医院采用的手段就是在再一次的检测过程中,指示工作人员将阳性病人的咽拭子样本标记成“鼻拭子”,并送到一家只做鼻拭子检测的实验室,这样检测出来的结果会呈阴性。
The nurses said the hospital instructed staff to take samples from inside someone's throat, but send the samples to a lab run by Piedmont Hospital that only tests nasal swabs, knowing the results would turn out negative for COVID-19.
根据起诉文件的内容,“地标医院”故意给这些样本贴上错误的标签,对此前检测已呈阳性的病人的二次检测结果进行操纵。
有一名护士在采访中告诉媒体,当她按照程序正常操作时,却遭到了上级的报复。她说:“我做了检测,结果呈阳性,然后就因为未遵照医生的指令进行检测被解雇了。”
"I did the test, and it did turn out positive and I was terminated for not having a doctor's order for a test," the nurse said.
佐治亚州立大学公共卫生学院的一名副教授Harry Heiman称,对病人进行正确的检测至关重要,这样该州才能得到准确的新冠肺炎病例数。
他说,“故意把采自气管的拭子标注成鼻拭子将导致实验室不能采用正确的方法进行检测,并得不出准确的结果”。
"So, intentionally taking a swab from the trachea and labeling it as coming from the nose will lead to it being handled improperly by the lab that's analyzing it and will not likely lead to accurate result," Heiman said.
他表示,这正是这家医院被指控的正在发生的事情,那对病人和员工而言都是一种不道德且危险的做法。
对于护士的指控,“地标医院”首席执行官Marie Saylor 给11Alive回复了一份声明,声明称医院将积极地对指控展开调查,维护医院和员工不受误导性和虚假指控的侵害。
Saylor表示,医院遵守了美国疾控中心、州和地方指引和其他确定了的流程进行新冠肺炎检测。医院将全力配合所有政府的调查,希望尽快全面地解决此事。
据报道,过去几个月,“地标医院”所在的阿森斯-克拉克郡的确诊病例数增长过程是缓慢和稳定的。截至上周四,佐治亚州卫生部门公布的数据显示,共发现了363例确诊病例,15例死亡,并有54例仍在住院治疗。
然而,“地标医院”却表示,目前没有新冠肺炎检测呈阳性的患者。
这一说法遭到了一名护士的反驳,“你们在向自己的患者撒谎。你们在向自己的家人撒谎,对于一种夺去这么多人生命的疾病,请别再如此淡漠了。”
"You're lying to your patients," the nurse said. "You’re lying to your family members and quite frankly for a disease that has killed so many people, quit being so careless."