Family Sues Sutter Memorial After Baby Contracts MRSA

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - A family is suing a local hospital after their baby contracted MRSA and they say the infection spread to the entire family.

The baby's mother, Beth Duruelle, is outraged. "I was kind of pissed. I was angry," she said.

She says since her son Gabriel contracted the infection seven months ago, each of the family members, including herself, have had outbreaks.

The family took Gabriel in for surgery at Sutter Memorial Hospital when he was just 1 month old. A few days later his surgery wound looked red and infected and he came down with a 104-degree temperature, his mother said.

"We came in to have something repaired, something to make him feel better, and we come out with an even more deadly disease," she said.

He tested positive for MRSA and a short time later both parents and his 2-year-old sister Jaslyn started seeing the same symptoms.

"It got so bad on him it created a hole in him," she said. "I got it on my legs and since then we've been battling it for seven months."

But, at first they didn't know what caused it and the family even moved out of their home because of it.

"We moved to my mom's house and then my mom got it," she said.

Gabriel's mother says they will have to treat outbreaks of the infection for the rest of their lives.

"Now that we have MRSA, we will always have MRSA in our systems," she said.

Twenty-three newborns in the neonatal ICU at Sutter tested positive for MRSA this summer, months after Gabriel's infection.

Beth's lawyer has video that shows a doctor touching a door knob and handling a newborn without washing his hands.

The hospital did release a statement Tuesday in response to the lawsuit. They would not discuss the specific case involving Gabriel but said the hospital and its staff do follow precautionary measures and recommended protocols during outpatient surgeries to ensure the safety of patients.

If the hospital and family can't reach an agreement, the case will go to court in December.