Failure to Sterilize Medical Devices: Medical Malpractice Claims in Missouri

About the Author

Ethan Charles (“EC”) Duckworth is the founding attorney of Duckworth Injury Law. EC earned his law degree from the University of Missouri - Columbia, where he graduated in the top 10 of his class and served as an Editor of the Missouri Law Review. EC currently serves as a member of the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys (MATA) and is a graduate of the Ross T. Roberts Trial Academy. EC has represented hundreds of injury victims throughout his career resulting in tens of millions of dollars in compensation recovered. EC’s personal injury practice include medical malpractice, and medical negligence claims in Missouri. 

Missouri Patients May Have a Medical Malpractice Claim After an Infection Caused by Contaminated Medical Instruments

Patients reasonably expect that every medical instrument used during surgery, testing, or treatment has been properly cleaned and sterilized. When a hospital, surgical center, clinic, or other healthcare provider fails to follow appropriate sterilization procedures, dangerous bacteria, viruses, and other contaminants may be transferred from an instrument to a patient.

An infection caused by a contaminated medical device can result in additional hospitalization, surgery, permanent injury, or even death. When inadequate cleaning or sterilization causes a patient’s injuries, the patient may have a medical malpractice claim under Missouri law.

Why Proper Sterilization of Medical Devices Matters for Mid-Missouri Patients 

Many medical devices are designed to be used more than once. These reusable devices may include surgical instruments, endoscopes, biopsy tools, dental instruments, laparoscopic equipment, and other devices used during invasive procedures.

Before a reusable device can safely be used on another patient, it must undergo “reprocessing.” According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, reprocessing is a detailed, multistep procedure through which a device is cleaned and then disinfected or sterilized. Cleaning is particularly important because blood, tissue, and other biological material left on an instrument can prevent the sterilization process from working properly.

Sterilization is more than simply wiping down an instrument. Depending on the device, proper reprocessing may require disassembly, precleaning, manual brushing, flushing internal channels, chemical disinfection, steam sterilization, drying, inspection, testing, and secure storage. Healthcare providers must also follow the device manufacturer’s instructions and confirm that sterilization equipment is functioning correctly.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that inadequate cleaning can cause disinfection or sterilization to fail and may lead to outbreaks of infection.

How Sterilization Failures Occur in Missouri Hospitals & Medical Offices 

A sterilization failure may happen because employees skip required cleaning steps, use the wrong disinfectant, fail to clean narrow channels within a device, overload sterilization equipment, or remove instruments before a sterilization cycle is complete. Problems may also arise when a facility does not properly maintain its sterilization equipment, fails to monitor test results, stores sterile instruments incorrectly, or allows untrained employees to perform reprocessing duties.

In other situations, a facility may reuse an instrument that was intended for a single use or continue using a device after discovering that its design makes it difficult to clean. A breakdown in communication can also cause contaminated instruments to be mistakenly labeled as sterile and returned to service.

These errors may occur in hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, physician offices, dental practices, endoscopy centers, and other medical facilities.

Injuries Caused by Contaminated Medical Devices

A contaminated medical instrument may expose a patient to bacterial infections, surgical-site infections, bloodstream infections, hepatitis, and other communicable diseases. Some patients develop abscesses, organ damage, sepsis, or other life-threatening complications.

Treatment may require intravenous antibiotics, drainage procedures, additional surgery, removal or replacement of an implanted device, and prolonged hospitalization. A severe infection can leave a patient with permanent pain, scarring, reduced mobility, organ damage, or other lasting limitations. In the most serious cases, an infection caused by an improperly sterilized instrument may result in death.

Symptoms do not always appear immediately. A patient may initially believe that pain, swelling, drainage, fever, or fatigue is part of the normal recovery process. Anyone experiencing signs of infection after a medical procedure should promptly seek appropriate medical care.

When Does a Sterilization Failure Become Medical Malpractice in Missouri?

Not every infection following surgery or another medical procedure proves that malpractice occurred. Infections can develop even when healthcare providers follow the appropriate standard of care. A successful claim generally requires evidence connecting the infection to a specific failure in the cleaning, disinfection, sterilization, handling, or storage process.

Under Section 538.210, RSMo, a claim against a healthcare provider requires proof that the provider failed to use the degree of skill and learning ordinarily used by members of the profession under the same or similar circumstances and that the failure directly caused or contributed to cause the patient’s injury or death.

In a sterilization case, this may require proving that the facility failed to follow accepted infection-control practices, the manufacturer’s reprocessing instructions, its own written procedures, or other applicable professional standards. The patient must also establish that the contaminated device caused or contributed to the infection and resulting damages.

Medical experts are usually needed to evaluate the sterilization process, identify the applicable standard of care, determine how the process failed, and connect the failure to the patient’s infection.

Evidence in a Medical Device Sterilization Case

These cases often depend on records that are entirely within the healthcare provider’s possession. Relevant evidence may include sterilizer cycle reports, biological and chemical indicator results, equipment-maintenance records, cleaning logs, device-tracking information, employee-training records, infection-control policies, manufacturer instructions, and internal incident reports.

The patient’s medical records are also important. Laboratory cultures, pathology results, infectious-disease evaluations, operative reports, and the timing of symptoms may help identify the source of an infection. Evidence that other patients developed similar infections after procedures at the same facility may also be significant.

Because records can be lost or overwritten, an attorney should investigate the potential claim and request preservation of relevant evidence as soon as possible.

Who May Be Responsible for Medical Malpractice in Missouri?

Depending on the facts, responsibility may rest with a hospital, ambulatory surgical center, physician group, dental practice, clinic, or individual healthcare professional. A separate company hired to clean or reprocess medical instruments may also bear responsibility.

Some cases involve problems with the device itself, including a design that prevents effective cleaning or inadequate reprocessing instructions. Those circumstances may support a claim against the device manufacturer in addition to, or instead of, a medical malpractice claim. Determining the correct defendants requires a careful review of who owned the device, who cleaned it, who maintained the sterilization equipment, and who made the decision to return the instrument to service.

Compensation Available in a Missouri Medical Malpractice Claim

A patient injured by a contaminated medical device may be entitled to compensation for reasonable medical expenses, future treatment, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, pain and suffering, physical impairment, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life. When a sterilization failure results in death, eligible family members may have a Missouri wrongful death claim.

Missouri law places statutory limitations on the recovery of noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases. Those limitations are adjusted annually and may depend on whether the injury qualifies as catastrophic or results in death. Economic damages, such as medical expenses and lost income, are evaluated separately.

Missouri’s Deadline for Filing a Medical Malpractice Claim

Missouri medical malpractice claims are generally subject to a short deadline. Under Section 516.105, RSMo, most claims must be brought within two years from the date of the alleged negligent act. Missouri generally does not extend that deadline merely because the patient discovered the infection or its cause at a later date. Limited statutory exceptions apply in certain circumstances, including specific rules for minors, foreign objects, and the failure to communicate medical test results.

Missouri also requires the plaintiff or the plaintiff’s attorney to obtain a supporting opinion from a legally qualified healthcare provider. Under Section 538.225, RSMo, an affidavit confirming that such an opinion has been obtained generally must be filed within 90 days after the lawsuit is filed, subject to a limited extension for good cause.

Because both the legal deadline and the required expert review can take time, patients should not wait to speak with an attorney.

Speak With a Missouri Medical Malpractice Attorney



Medical providers have a responsibility to protect patients from preventable exposure to contaminated instruments. When a hospital, surgical center, clinic, or other provider fails to properly sterilize a medical device, the consequences can be devastating.

E.C. Duckworth is a Missouri personal injury attorney and the founder of Duckworth Injury Law. If you or a loved one developed a serious infection after a medical procedure and believe a contaminated instrument may have been involved, contact Duckworth Injury Law for a free consultation. We represent injured patients in Columbia, Jefferson City, the Lake of the Ozarks, and throughout Mid-Missouri.