Halyard Health, the American manufacturer of surgical gowns, is facing accusations that it knowingly provided defective MICROCOOL surgical gowns to US health care workers during the most recent Ebola crisis. (Surgical gowns must be impermeable, so blood containing dangerous viruses like Ebola cannot seep through the gown, particularly the seams.) Whistleblower Bernard Vezeau, Haylard’s former global strategic marketing director for the MICROCOOL brand, talks with 60 Minutes correspondent Anderson Cooper about what he discovered on the job.
Vezeau tells Cooper that Halyard’s MICROCOOL gowns “would leak when we pressure tested them, especially at the seams.” Another surgical gown manufacturer, Cardinal Health, reports that “77 percent of the [MICROCOOL] gowns tested failed the industry-recognized test on one or both sleeves.” On camera, Halyard Health’s Chief Operating Officer Chris Lowery denies the allegation and says, “We’ve never received even one report of a health care professional contracting an infection as a result of a flaw in our product.” 60 Minutes airs Sundays at 7pm on CBS.
[Halyard Health Response To MICROCOOL Gowns Safety Concerns]
