A Louisiana man who may have been exposed to a rare, fatal brain-wasting disease during surgery is suing the university hospital where his operation was performed, his attorney said on Wednesday.
Death usually occurs within a year after the onset of symptoms.
The suit, filed in state civil district court in New Orleans this week, seeks unspecified financial damages. Hoover said Rebert underwent surgery in April to remove a small portion of his brain that caused him to have multiple and increasingly severe seizures in a form of epilepsy. His father, who died just three weeks before the operation, had made him promise to take care of his mother and a younger sister who has cerebral palsy. Last month, Tulane confirmed that eight neurosurgery patients may have been exposed to CJD through surgical instruments that may have been contaminated by use on an earlier brain-surgery patient who had the disease. The hospital said the instruments received routine washing and sterilization after being used on the earlier patient, but admitted that the risk of spreading the disease may not have been eliminated.