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‘Bedbugs’ Invade NYU’s Joint Disease Hospital; Entire Floor Shut Down


NYU’s Hospital for Joint Diseases shut down a 10th-floor treatment area after a patient said she saw a bedbug.

The woman’s claim forced the evacuation of the hospital’s infusion center on the 10th floor of the E. 17th St. facility on Tuesday.

Hospital workers scoured the area and said they found nothing, but the staff was sent home, appointments were canceled and the isolated area was treated just in case.

“A patient reported seeing a bedbug on another patient at our infusion center, but none was found,” a hospital spokeswoman said yesterday.

“We closed the center and treated the area. No bedbugs were found and the center is reopened.”

The center primarily treats patients with multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and some dermatology ailments.

Katherine McFarlane, 30, who has suffered from rheumatoid arthritis since childhood, depends on the four-hour infusion to function without pain.

She was incensed when the center called two hours before her 1:30 p.m. appointment and told her they were having “logistics” problems.

“An hour later I was told they were ‘overbooked.’ Then they told me it was a ‘patient health problem,'” said McFarlane, a midtown lawyer.

“After five phone calls and me saying I was an attorney, someone…finally told me it was about bedbugs.”

McFarlane was scheduled for an IV infusion of the drug Remicade, which she needs every eight weeks to relieve debilitating swelling and joint pain.

McFarlane told the Daily News she was happy no bedbugs were found, but she has decided to switch to Beth Israel.

(Source: NY Daily News)



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