Oct 22, 2015 2 min read

PITTSBURGH (AP) – The mold crisis at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center could be more widespread than initially believed, according to two Pittsburgh attorneys.

Jerry Meyers and Brendan Lupetin are reviewing the death of Mary Frances Reiff, 69, who they said underwent a June 2014 kidney transplant in UPMC-Montefiore, contracted a fungal lung infection and died in UPMC-Presbyterian, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported.

“Given the timing of when her pneumonia developed in relation to the period of time she was hospitalized compared to the very little time she was home, we have reason to believe she contracted this at UPMC,” Lupetin said.

Both hospitals were at the center of a mold investigation last month that caused UPMC to halt its transplant program for nearly a week. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Pennsylvania Department of Health conducted an onsite investigation, and CDC is finalizing its report, spokesman Thomas Skinner said Wednesday.

Reiff’s family contacted the lawyers after reading four other transplant patients had developed mold infections. Three of them died.

UPMC doctors maintain the deaths cannot be directly attributed to mold because transplant patients with weakened immune systems are at risk of picking up infections that otherwise healthy people routinely fight off.

“While rare, fungal infections do occur and are a particular risk to the very sickest patients with the weakest immune systems at any hospital,” Tami Minnier, UPMC’s chief quality officer, said in a statement.

Meyers’ law firm also is looking into the death of John Petrolino, 70, of Manchester Township, N.J., who traveled to UPMC-Presbyterian for a lung transplant in November.

Meyers said Petrolino developed a fungal lung infection and successfully responded to antifungal medication treatment. He died Sept. 7 in his home of respiratory failure.