GALVESTON COUNTY, Texas - On Tuesday, the Galveston County Health District said that out of the 9,500 patients who may have been exposed to deadly diseases at Texas City’s Coastal Health and Wellness facility, roughly 600 are children.
So far, health officials are investigating 6 hepatitis C cases to see if the disease was transmitted at the facility, as testing of other patients continues.
An audit of the Coastal Health and Wellness Center in Texas City and in Galveston showed 11 different life-threatening violations related to staff not cleaning or sterilizing instruments used during procedures.
The main concerns are for patients who had invasive procedures that may have been exposed to Hepatitis B or Hepatitis C and HIV.
Meanwhile, on top of the health scare, many patients have been left in the lurch in the middle of dental treatment.
“I can’t really smile in pictures,” said Jackie Anderson, a dental patient at Coastal Health and Wellness. “It’s hard to eat, I have a lot of mouth pain, a lot of infection.”
For almost two months Anderson has been walking around with only a few teeth in her mouth as she was in the process of getting dentures and needed to have 17 teeth pulled.
Anderson paid close to $1,200 dollars and had 11 teeth pulled but as she prepared for another appointment to have the other 6 extracted, the clinic canceled with very little information, that was back in early February, according to Anderson.
Anderson says it wasn’t until she saw information about the investigation on the news that she realized what had happened.
“I’m pretty terrified actually. We’re the patients coming in to get help and here we are getting a health scare?”
On Tuesday, Dr. Philip Keiser said their main concern is Hepatitis C, so far 6 cases.
“We don’t know that these people got it from the dental clinic,” explained Keiser. “We don’t know that… we think there’s a possibility.”
Free testing for patients began on Monday. Keiser says so far more than 1,000 people have called into their free hotline and more than 500 have been tested in the past two days.
Meanwhile, the clinic remains closed down as it works to improve sterilization procedures, however, it could reopen as early as next week.
“Our goal is not to shut this down forever and ever,” said Keiser. “Our goal is to get it back to the point where everybody can be treated safely.”
Testing services are ongoing as is a public hotline (409) 938-2397 for anyone with questions.
For more information you can visit the Galveston County Health District's website.