Hepatitis A a ‘factor’ in woman’s death

A 68-year-old Honolulu woman who got hepatitis A after eating tainted scallop sushi died last week after being in and out of the hospital since June, her lawyer said Thursday.

Attorney Bill Marler of the Seattle law firm Marler Clark said her family requested privacy, and the cause of death was not disclosed. But he said he believes the hepatitis “certainly was a contributing factor.”

“I think the cause of her death is hepatitis A illness that destabilized her health that eventually led to her death, but she did not die of acute hepatitis liver failure,” Marler told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “It was a tragedy for the family, and it’s something that shouldn’t happen. She had no acute underlying conditions that would cause her death.”

A state Department of Health spokesman acknowledged the case but said he could not comment on specifics because of patient privacy and the fact that the state is still investigating the hepatitis A outbreak.

“We are aware of the death of somebody who was previously reported as being infected with hepatitis A,” said Jonathan Hilts, information specialist at the department’s Disease Outbreak Control Division. “This death was reported to us by Queen’s earlier this week. But beyond that we can’t say much.”

The Health Department has reported that 291 people contracted hepatitis A, and 73 of them required hospitalization in the outbreak, which was traced to frozen scallops served raw at Genki Sushi. The scallops were imported by Sea Port Products Corp. and distributed by Koha Foods.

No new cases were reported in the last week. The 50-day incubation period for the disease has passed since the scallops were pulled from the market Aug. 16. The Health Department continues to monitor secondary cases. Genki Sushi was cleared to reopen its outlets in September.

The woman who died had eaten at Genki Sushi in late April and early May and fell ill in June, according to Marler. At one point she was on a list to get a liver transplant, but she was not on it when she died, he said.

“The family was hopeful that she was going to get better or she was going to get a transplant,” he said.

She was a client of Marler and Honolulu attorney Michael F. Connor, but no lawsuit has been filed in her case. The attorneys, who represent numerous victims of hepatitis A, have been in contact with lawyers and insurance carriers for Genki Sushi USA, Koha Foods and Sea Port Products Corp.

“Things are moving along well,” Marler said. “The goal here is to take care of people, not necessarily to have a whole bunch of lawsuits.”

“Since we know what caused the outbreak, there is not a lot from my perspective to fight about except how to fairly compensate people for their injuries, which now range from being sick for a week or two to being hospitalized for months and dying.”

Several lawsuits have been filed in the outbreak, including class actions on behalf of people who were exposed to hepatitis A and got vaccinated but didn’t contract the disease. One case was filed on behalf of a victim who was so sick he had to be hospitalized.

Earlier in the outbreak a patient who was terminally ill and in hospice care got infected with hepatitis A and later died. The cause of death was not clear, but Hilts said it was likely due to the underlying health problem.

Marler said the Health Department might not attribute the more recent death to tainted sushi, either.

“I think probably the Health Department, given the time between initial infection and her death, they probably are not particularly counting it as a hep A death,” he said. “From our perspective it certainly was a contributing factor.”