Olympus Ordered to Cough Up $6.6 Million in Damages to Seattle Hospital Over Contaminated Scopes

A jury ordered the giant medical scope maker Olympus Corp. to pay a Seattle hospital $6.6 million in damages tied to a deadly superbug outbreak — and told the hospital to pay $1 million to a deceased patient’s family.

But jurors on Monday also handed the Tokyo-based manufacturer a key win, rejecting claims that its flagship duodenoscope was unsafe as designed.

The decision follows an eight-week trial, the first in the U.S. related to gastrointestinal scopes causing outbreaks of drug-resistant infections.

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