Olympus Scope Lawsuit Connecticut — Free Consultation for CT Patients

CALL 24/7(888) 348-2735

Olympus Scope — Infection Claims

Hospitalized With an Infection After a Scope Procedure?

If you were told it was “just a complication,” Olympus’s federal guilty plea — and $85 million in penalties — tell a different story. In two minutes, you can know whether your case qualifies.

ACTIVE LITIGATION. 250+ patients · most recent filing: June 2026 · deadlines vary by state — some as short as one year.

Were you hospitalized with an infection within 30 days of an endoscopy or scope procedure?

Yes — See If My Case Qualifiesfree · takes 2 minutes
I think so / not sure

Free · confidential · no fee unless there is a recovery · answering doesn’t commit you to anything. Court costs and litigation expenses are advanced by counsel and repaid from the recovery. You are not responsible for court costs or litigation expenses if there is no recovery, unless a court directs otherwise. The attorney’s fee is a percentage of the gross recovery, calculated before expenses are deducted.

Prefer to talk it through? (888) 348-2735 — free and confidential.

Stefanie A. Murphy & Matthew T. Marin

Partners

You’ll get a straight answer even if it’s “you don’t qualify.” Everything you share is confidential — even if you never hire us. No fee unless there is a recovery; costs are advanced and reimbursed only out of a recovery. If you do qualify, our Olympus scope litigation team requests the medical and hospital records — you don’t chase them.

Qualification depends on what the medical records show — the scope involved, the infection, and the timing. We’ll review them and give you a straight answer either way.

Connecticut Patients May Have a Claim Against Olympus

Connecticut patients who developed infections after scope procedures may have legal rights against Olympus Corporation. Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut was named in the U.S. Senate HELP Committee investigation as one of the hospitals nationally linked to contaminated Olympus scope procedures. Marin & Murphy Law Firm is Connecticut-licensed and is currently accepting scope infection claims from CT patients. Call (888) 348-2735 for a free case evaluation.

Why Connecticut Patients Must Act Immediately

Yes. Connecticut patients who developed infections after Olympus scope procedures may have legal rights in the Olympus scope lawsuit. This is a national product liability litigation targeting Olympus Medical Systems Corporation for designing and distributing endoscopes with a fixed elevator mechanism that cannot be fully cleaned using standard hospital reprocessing protocols. Connecticut patients are eligible to file claims in this litigation on the same basis as patients in any other state.

Marin & Murphy Law Firm is Connecticut-licensed. Matthew T. Marin, J.D., is admitted to the Connecticut Bar (Juris ​#430019, admitted June 15, 2009) and can represent Connecticut patients directly in Connecticut state court. Stefanie A. Murphy, J.D., is admitted in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. For Connecticut patients, there is no need to retain an out-of-state firm — direct, licensed Connecticut representation is available through Marin & Murphy.

The connection between Connecticut and the Olympus scope litigation is not abstract. Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut was one of the hospitals named in the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee report “Preventable Tragedies,” published January 13, 2016. That report documented at least 25 duodenoscope-associated outbreaks, including approximately 12 patients in a January 2014 outbreak at Hartford Hospital linked to contaminated Olympus duodenoscopes.

Connecticut patients — particularly those who underwent scope procedures at Hartford Hospital — are directly connected to the documented outbreak history. (Source: Senate HELP Committee, January 13, 2016.) Connecticut’s statute of limitations for personal injury claims is two years from the date of injury or discovery. Most Connecticut patients who developed scope-related infections in 2024 or 2025 are within their filing window.

Patients infected in 2023 should contact an attorney immediately to confirm their deadline. Patients who believe their deadline may have passed should still contact us Contact Marin & Murphy today for a free case evaluation: (888) 348-2735.

What Is the Olympus Scope Lawsuit?

The Olympus scope lawsuit is a product liability litigation against Olympus Medical Systems Corporation and its parent, Olympus Corporation, for manufacturing endoscopes that are defective because their design makes them impossible to fully sterilize using standard hospital cleaning protocols. The design defect centers on the fixed elevator mechanism at the tip of duodenoscopes — a recessed chamber beneath a movable metal flap that fills with patient bacteria during procedures and cannot be reliably penetrated by standard high-level disinfection.

When a scope is used on the next patient, those bacteria can be introduced directly into that patient’s body. Multiple independent peer-reviewed studies confirm this failure mode. A 2024 analysis spanning eight years of duodenoscope cultures found that approximately 15% of patient-ready duodenoscopes remained contaminated with gastrointestinal microorganisms despite reprocessing, and a 2022 meta-analysis of 9,084 cultures found a 5% contamination rate even after enhanced cleaning protocols.

(van der Ploeg et al., Gut, 2024, PMID 38182137; Bomman et al., Clinical Endoscopy, 2022, PMID 34974676.) The legal watershed in this litigation was Olympus’s December 2018 federal criminal guilty plea. Olympus Medical Systems Corporation and former senior executive Hisao Yabe pleaded guilty to three counts of distributing misbranded medical devices and paid $85 million in penalties, for failing to file FDA-required adverse-event reports about infections.

(Source: DOJ press release, December 10, 2018.) This criminal conviction is significant evidence in the litigation, as Olympus admitted it failed to file FDA-required adverse-event reports about infections. The most recent major development is Olympus’s October 2025 Urgent Field Safety Notice, in which Olympus updated its reprocessing instructions and issued a Visual Inspection Guide recommending 10X magnification, and reported 2 deaths and 5 serious injuries from infection potentially related to these devices since 2024 — while stating it could not determine whether the devices caused the infections.

As of June 2026, no MDL has been filed or is currently pending; cases are proceeding as individual lawsuits in federal and state courts. The legal argument is that Olympus — not the hospital — was responsible for providing safe cleaning instructions. Hospitals reported following the reprocessing instructions Olympus provided at the relevant time. Whether those instructions were adequate is a central, contested issue in the litigation and was examined in the Senate HELP Committee’s findings.

Why Connecticut Patients Are at Risk

Olympus holds approximately 70–80% of the U.S. endoscope market. This means the vast majority of hospitals in Connecticut that perform endoscopic procedures — ERCPs, colonoscopies, gastroscopies, bronchoscopies — almost certainly use Olympus-branded equipment at least for some procedures. Hartford Hospital (Hartford, CT) is specifically named in the U.S. Senate HELP Committee report “Preventable Tragedies” (January 13, 2016) as one of the hospitals identified in connection with Olympus scope contamination outbreaks, with approximately 12 patients in a January 2014 outbreak.

If you underwent a scope procedure at Hartford Hospital, particularly between 2013 and the present, your situation is directly relevant to this litigation. (Source: Senate HELP Committee, January 13, 2016.) Other major Connecticut hospital systems where Olympus scopes are likely in use include academic medical centers and multi-hospital health systems across New Haven, Hartford, and the greater Connecticut region. Given Olympus’s 70–80% share of the U.S. flexible endoscope market, patients treated at these facilities were statistically likely to have undergone procedures using Olympus devices.

No specific outbreak is being asserted as to any individual Connecticut facility. We are not claiming confirmed outbreaks at these facilities beyond Hartford Hospital — we are noting that Olympus’s dominant U.S. market share means patients at virtually any Connecticut hospital performing endoscopic procedures may have been treated with Olympus equipment. The FDA’s MAUDE (Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience) database contains adverse event reports from Connecticut facilities that may be relevant to your case evaluation.

Do You Qualify? Confirming Your Potential Claim

Connecticut patients may qualify to file an Olympus scope infection claim if all of the following confirmed intake criteria are met:

• ☐  Procedure date on or after January 1, 2015.
• ☐  Procedure performed with an Olympus bronchoscope, upper GI endoscope, or colonoscope.
• ☐  Confirmed infection diagnosis required.
• ☐  Inpatient hospitalization for the infection required. Outpatient treatment with oral antibiotics alone does not qualify.
• ☐  IV antibiotic treatment during hospitalization required.
• ☐  Infection and hospitalization within 30 days of scope procedure. Most patients in this litigation developed symptoms within approximately five days.
• ☐  No active dialysis or chemotherapy.

If a scope or scope component physically broke apart during your procedure and required emergency surgery to retrieve fragments, this is a separate product liability claim that does not require an infection. Contact us to discuss device disintegration cases separately. Contact Marin & Murphy today for a free case evaluation: (888) 348-2735.

What Should Connecticut Patients Do Now?

Frequently Asked Questions: Olympus Scope Lawsuit Connecticut

Can Connecticut patients file an Olympus scope lawsuit?

Yes. Connecticut patients have the same legal rights as patients in any other state in this litigation. Marin & Murphy Law Firm is Connecticut-licensed — Matthew T. Marin is admitted to the Connecticut Bar (Juris ​#430019) and can represent Connecticut patients directly. If you underwent a scope procedure in Connecticut and developed a qualifying infection within 30 days, contact us for a free case evaluation at (888) 348-2735.

What is the filing deadline for Connecticut Olympus scope claims?

Connecticut has a two-year statute of limitations for personal injury claims. The clock typically runs from the date of injury or the date you discovered (or reasonably should have discovered) the connection to a contaminated device. Filing deadlines are strictly enforced. Even if you believe your deadline may have passed, contact us before assuming you have no options — depending on the circumstances, there may still be options worth discussing.

Was a Connecticut hospital named in the Olympus scope investigation?

Yes. Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut was named in the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee report “Preventable Tragedies,” published January 13, 2016. That report documented at least 25 duodenoscope-associated outbreaks linked to contaminated Olympus duodenoscopes, including approximately 12 patients in a January 2014 outbreak at Hartford Hospital. Hartford Hospital was one of the named institutions.

(Source: Senate HELP Committee, January 13, 2016.)

Which Connecticut hospitals use Olympus scopes?

Olympus holds approximately 70–80% of the U.S. endoscope market, meaning the majority of Connecticut hospitals performing endoscopic procedures likely use Olympus equipment. Hartford Hospital is specifically named in the Senate HELP investigation. Other major Connecticut academic medical centers and health systems likely use Olympus scopes for some or all endoscopic procedures. The specific scope model used in your procedure can often be obtained from your procedure records.

I had an ERCP at Hartford Hospital or another Connecticut hospital and developed an infection — what should I do?

Request your complete medical records from the procedure, including the endoscopy report identifying the specific scope model used. Also obtain your infection diagnosis records, hospitalization records, blood culture results if available, and IV antibiotic administration records. Then contact Marin & Murphy Law Firm at (888) 348-2735 for a free evaluation. If you had a scope procedure at Hartford Hospital specifically, your situation may be directly relevant to the Senate HELP investigation findings about that institution.

What is the Olympus scope lawsuit?

The Olympus scope lawsuit is a national product liability litigation against Olympus Corporation for manufacturing flexible endoscopes that could not be reliably disinfected under its own cleaning instructions. Olympus pleaded guilty in December 2018 to distributing misbranded medical devices and paid $85 million in federal penalties, admitting it failed to file FDA-required reports of infection events. (Source: DOJ press release.) Multiple CRE outbreaks at named hospitals are documented in peer-reviewed studies.

Who qualifies to file an Olympus scope claim in Connecticut?

Qualifying criteria for Connecticut patients include: a scope procedure on or after January 1, 2015; a confirmed infection diagnosis; inpatient hospitalization requiring IV antibiotic treatment; infection onset within 30 days of the procedure; and no active chemotherapy or dialysis at the time of hospitalization procedure. Matthew T. Marin, J.D. (CT Bar Juris ​#430019) can evaluate whether your situation qualifies under the confirmed intake criteria.

Does Marin & Murphy handle Olympus scope cases for Connecticut patients?

Yes. Marin & Murphy Law Firm is Connecticut-licensed and actively investigating Olympus scope infection claims for Connecticut patients. Matthew T. Marin is admitted to the Connecticut Bar (Juris ​#430019, admitted June 15, 2009) and provides direct, licensed representation for CT patients — not a referral arrangement. Contact us at (888) 348-2735 for a free consultation. We also handle scope claims for patients in Rhode Island, South Carolina, Massachusetts, and nationwide.

A June 2026 Washington wrongful-death filing, Bruto Da Costa v. Olympus (W.D. Wash.), is among the most recent Olympus duodenoscope cases — see the Olympus scope lawsuit overview for details.