Family of New Castle woman with deadly mold infection latest to sue UPMC, Paris

UPMC and its linen supplier, Paris Companies, are facing another lawsuit in connection with the fatal mold crisis that prompted a federal investigation.

The newest plaintiffs are family members of Katherine Landman, 44, of New Castle, who died at home in hospice care on Oct. 11, 2015, after being treated at UPMC Shadyside. She was a leukemia patient who developed a fungal infection that invaded her sinus cavity, according to the lawsuit.

Two months before she died, doctors performed “endoscopic sinus surgery intended to carve out the fungus invading her sinus cavity,” the lawsuit stated.

Ultimately, doctors determined the infection was “not curable,” lawyers wrote in the lawsuit.

Landman is the seventh person believed to have died after contracting a fungal infection inside a UPMC facility. Five were transplant patients; two were cancer patients.

She was married to Steven W. Landman, and they had two children, Steven and Chelsea.

She worked at the Children's Advocacy Center in New Castle as a counselor and supervisor, her father, Lenny Boyce, told the Tribune-Review. She was a member of the Lawrence County Homeless Coalition.

“She was the kind of person who always helped people,” Boyce said. “She was just a great person.”

Landman grew up in New Castle, graduating from New Castle High School, and attended Penn State University, where she received her bachelor of science degree in family and child development. She obtained another bachelor's degree in human resources at Geneva College.

The latest filing in Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas marks the sixth lawsuit connected to mold deaths in immune-suppressed patients that surfaced in September 2015. Two lawsuits filed on behalf of transplant patients have been settled for $1.35 million apiece.

“Our hospitals are safe, and our ongoing monitoring and testing show no evidence of concerning mold infections,” said Allison Hydzik, a UPMC spokeswoman. “We and the nation's top health regulators have found no definitive cause of the previous infections, which are known to occur on occasion at hospitals in the U.S. UPMC has gone above and beyond any existing guidelines and CDC recommendations for assuring the safety of our patients in implementing strategies to prevent these infections and in reporting these infections when they are discovered.”

Other hospitals named in lawsuits include UPMC Presbyterian and UPMC Montefiore.

The Landman lawsuit, filed by Pittsburgh attorneys Brendan Lupetin and Jerry Meyers, alleges medical malpractice, wrongful death, negligence and other civil charges.

Paris became a defendant in the pending lawsuits after an internal UPMC report that surfaced in January indicated heavy mold growth was found in linens delivered to UPMC Montefiore.

A source of the fungal infections has not been determined, although a previous Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report pointed to a ventilation system at UPMC Presbyterian in some of the cases.

Boyce said his daughter suffered from acute myeloid leukemia. She had a bone marrow transplant from her brother Paul three years ago, and relapsed in July 2015.

Boyce said she was preparing for another bone marrow transplant when she became afflicted with the fungal infection.

“All of the sudden, doctors were telling us that she got this terrible infection,” he said. “I feel like they knew what was wrong but nobody wanted to step up and admit it. They are still not admitting it. And now we hear that the linens may have had the mold.”

Paris has denied any wrongdoing.

“The hearts of the Paris family go out to all those who have been affected by these deaths,” Paris CEO Dave Stern said in a statement Thursday. “The Centers for Disease Control and the Pennsylvania Department of Health have both said the facts don't support the conclusion that these infections resulted from exposure to linens. We stand by these statements from our public agencies.”

UPMC also hired Andrew Streifel, a hospital environment specialist, to investigate Paris Healthcare Linen Services, a subsidiary of Paris Companies in DuBois.

As part of the investigation, Streifel inspected a linen cart delivered by Paris to UPMC Montefiore on Feb. 2, 2016. Samples showed “heavy fungal growth” of rhizopus in the “wet sheets collected from the UPMC laundry carts,” he wrote. Rhizopus is a form of mold, the same type that infected Landman and other patients, according to the lawsuit.

“UPMC had a responsibility to ensure that clean textiles returned to the hospital were at all times properly covered and/or sealed in plastic until ready for use by its immune suppressed patients, so as to prevent or minimize microbial and fungal contamination during transport throughout its hospital facility,” Lupetin wrote in the lawsuit.

In a Jan. 27 interview with the Tribune-Review , Streifel said he believes tainted laundry was the source of fungal infections that killed transplant patients.

“The test was very conclusive for fungus,” he said at the time. “It was also conclusive that something was wrong with that laundry.”

The lawsuit also cites an email from Allegheny County Health Department Chief Epidemiologist LuAnn Brink dated June 21, 2016, in which she wrote, “It is looking more likely than ever, that the linen vendor is the more likely potential source of mucor as you can see by the reports.” Rhizopus is a part of the mold family mucorales.

The Tribune-Review filed a Right to Know request with Allegheny County to receive the same email but it was heavily redacted in a response.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health and the CDC have said the UPMC mold cases have not been tied to linen exposure. UPMC continues to do business with Paris.

A Tribune-Review story earlier this month pointed out that an unannounced state inspection of UPMC Shadyside revealed improper storage of clean and soiled linens along with ventilation problems.

UPMC responded at the time, “when issues are found, we move quickly to make corrections, as we have in this case.”

Stern said Thursday: “Our reputation has been earned over three decades by providing safe, hygienically clean linens to more than 100 hospitals and healthcare facilities throughout the region.”

Ben Schmitt is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7991 or bschmitt@tribweb.com.