Former PVH nurse sues GE

DENVER – A former Poudre Valley Hospital nurse has filed suit against General Electric Co. and its health-care subsidiaries alleging that a medical-imaging product made by GE caused an illness that has left her unable to work.

Greta Carolus, a Loveland resident, was being evaluated for a kidney transplant at PVH in 2005 when she underwent a magnetic resonance imaging scan. Prior to the MRI scan, Carolus was injected with a GE-manufactured drug called Omniscan that marks blood vessels so they can be distinguished from other tissue.

The lawsuit says that within days of the scan, Carolus developed symptoms of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis, or NSF, a disease that causes fibrosis and swelling in arms, legs and joints.

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“This disease has caused Ms. Carolus to suffer this condition and has caused permanent effects affecting her throughout her lifetime and could lead to death,” Carolus’ Denver lawyer, Peter Burg, wrote in the suit. Burg’s firm, Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh & Jardine, specializes in complex product liability and medical malpractice cases.

Carolus now uses a wheelchair and has only limited extension of her legs, several fingers and elbows. She was forced to leave her nursing job because of her debilitating injuries, the suit says.

The suit also alleges that GE Healthcare Biosciences Corp., a General Electric subsidiary, should have been aware that the drug Omniscan had the potential to cause NSF. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year received reports of 200 NSF cases worldwide, and issued a public health advisory saying serious and sometimes fatal cases were associated with medical imaging agents including Omniscan.

Specialty physician groups, including the American College of Radiology, have also issued advisories warning of the risks Omniscan and other imaging agents present.

“Neither Greta Carolus nor her prescribing physician, nor the performing radiologists or technicians were warned or cautioned by defendants about the serious health risks presented by the administration of Omniscan,” the suit says.

Poudre Valley Hospital is not named in the suit.