Lee’s Summit couple sues KC hospital over ‘dirty’ infection. ‘It’s been devastating’

The infection Bill Berberich developed following his hip replacement surgery at Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City a couple years ago has cost him plenty.

“It’s just been a long road trying to recover,” he said, reflecting with his wife Barb Berberich on the last two years of their lives.

The infection and its fallout forced him to step back from work and draw on Social Security at age 62, much earlier than he was expecting, and the move will impact the Lee’s Summit couple’s finances for the rest of their lives, they said.

Bill Berberich has mostly healed since his significant health scare, but his leg still isn’t quite right. He can walk without pain, but his leg strength is diminished, his thigh is permanently damaged and his old normal is gone forever, he said.

“It’s been devastating,” he said. “It altered the course of our life. We’re to the point in our life where we’re thinking of retirement and wanting to do things. It altered the course.”

The couple filed a lawsuit against Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City, the surgeon and the hospital’s parent organization in April, alleging they failed to protect patients by not following proper sterilization procedures in 2022 and 2023; a claim which first surfaced in 2023 with a whistleblower’s complaints about the hospital’s sterilization procedures, among other concerns.

The lawsuit was originally filed in Jackson County Circuit Court and was moved to U.S. District Court in June.

An attorney for the couple is pursuing a class action against the Saint Luke’s Health System over the sterilization allegations, and is seeking surgery patients who suffered infections after a procedure at the hospital during that period to join the lawsuit.

The lawsuit references reporting from The Star in 2023 centering on allegations of improper sterilization at the hospital from a former employee, a sterile processing manager. That employee, Elizabeth Bell, cited examples of issues with bugs, using damaged and broken instruments on patients, a shortage of instruments needed to perform necessary surgeries and shortcuts taken while cleaning instruments between procedures, The Star reported.

Hospital officials at the time countered the claims, hailing the hospital’s sterile processing department and recent investments in that area.

In a statement to The Star, Lindsey Stich, a spokesperson for Saint Luke’s, said the organization does not comment on pending litigation, but said, “Saint Luke’s sterile processing team adheres to and follows the standards set by the nation’s most reputable governing organizations including the Association of Operating Room Nurses and the Healthcare Sterile Processing Association, the Association of Operating Room Nurses, The Joint Commission (TJC), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS), and Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI).”

A “dirty” infection

After Bill’s initial procedure, what was later described to the couple by a physician as a “dirty” infection set in, and he ended up back in the hospital, where he underwent another surgery to clean up the infection a couple weeks later. He had a series of blood transfusions.

In June 2023, he had a revision surgery to correct the initial work done on his hip.

Lee Cross Jr., the couple’s attorney, said he has identified a group of 7-10 Saint Luke’s patients with stories similar to Bill Berberich’s, who had infections post-surgery, to add to the lawsuit. Cross emphasized the number of similar stories, as well as Bell’s account from inside the hospital, in weighing the case.

“I think there’s a lot of good people at Saint Luke’s, but I know there’s a lot of pressure to get patients in and out and turn profits,” Cross said.

“They’ve gotta do the right thing,” he added. “We just need them to clean up their shops and clean up their operating facilities, because people need the surgeries, people need them.”

After the couple read The Star’s reporting of Bell’s account last year, the Berberichs linked that story with the timeframe of Bill’s infection.

“It seemed to connect some dots for us,” Barb Berberich said.

“I believe that he had problems from the surgery based on the surgeon, I believe that there’s strong evidence that says that the problems that they were having keeping things clean and sterilized played a big factor in that infection,” she added. “It was gruesome.”

The lawsuit alleges the defendants “failed to implement and maintain reasonable and adequate sterilization measures to secure, protect, and safeguard their patients against inflection and unnecessary illness.”

It names nine counts against the defendants, including negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, medical malpractice and fraud.

In the midst of Bill Berberich’s health scare, the couple grappled with the idea of his death. During the height of the infection, his skin looked gray. He feared he might wake up from his follow-up procedure with his leg amputated. During his recovery, a night out for the couple’s 40th wedding anniversary left him debilitated him for days.

“This infection, this recovery from the hip was more than either one of us could handle,” Barb Berberich said. “It was just a lot.”

The lawsuit asks for the court to certify a class of plaintiffs, asks for damages and is seeking a jury trial. A scheduling conference is set for Aug. 6.