Measles outbreak is latest crisis for Children's Hospital

Seattle — There is new anxiety at Seattle Children's Hospital after a nurse tested positive for measles. A number of children in her care may be exposed..

And it's just weeks after operating rooms were shut down.

The hospital just reopened its operating rooms after spending week getting rid of mold.

Now, they have a nurse who has the measles.  Based on what is being posted on  Facebook, that nurse attended to a lot of very sick patients at Children’s.   And that has left a lot of people scared.

The development is news to many of those still arriving at Children's Hospital.

"No, I had no idea," said Natalie and Luke Brockmann from Juneau, Alaska.

They are here for their infant daughter's treatment.  They had not heard that a nurse at Children's contracted measles from a young patient, and may have spread it to others.

"Upon entry, they asked us if we had any signs of fever or rash or any signs of measles?" Natalie said. "And we just said no and they let us in. But that's pretty much all they disclosed."

There is plenty of concern on social media.

"(My niece) is hooked up on life support and the nurse was her nurse," wrote one woman, who said she was the patient's aunt. "No vaccines for my niece because her body can't handle it and now we have to try as hard as we can to keep her alive."

Someone else wrote: "Our friends infant was under her care. Now many families have to wait and see if their babies will come down with it. Scary! This is delaying a life saving heart surgery!"

Just 13 days ago, at a contentious news conference, Children's Hospital announced it was reopening its operating rooms. A total of 1,000 surgeries were postponed for nearly two full months after the fungus known as aspergillus was discovered.

Now, some parents on Facebook are saying their children are being quarantined while being tested for the measles, and their surgeries have been postponed, too.

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Still the hospital retains the confidence of the Brockmanns.

"I feel like they are equipped to handle it, deal with it, contain it," Luke said. "So I have faith in them."

Children's would not make anyone available to talk on camera about this.

But in several emails, they said patients who were exposed to the measles will be in an isolation unit until July 31.

At-risk patients who were exposed are receiving post-exposure preventive medicine and will remain in isolation until Aug. 7.

Cox Media Group