This goes into our category of “Reflections of the Fall”. A company that had a strong reputation for quality has stumbled, and then lied to hospitals about it, at the cost of dozens of lives lost due to bacterial infections.

After each outbreak, Olympus contended that its scopes did not cause the infections and blamed the hospitals for not cleaning them properly. The company treated each case as an isolated incident, not telling the U.S. hospitals that they weren’t alone.

“Olympus’ silence on this important issue was unethical, irresponsible and dangerous,” said Dr. Andrew Ross, chief of gastroenterology at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, where 18 patients sickened by tainted scopes died and 21 more were infected.

Read more at LA Times.