Olympus Scope Lawsuit South Carolina — Free Consultation for SC Patients

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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.

South Carolina patients who developed infections after Olympus scope procedures may have legal rights in the Olympus scope lawsuit. Marin & Murphy Law Firm is a South Carolina-licensed firm with a Charleston office at 997 Morrison Dr Ste 200. South Carolina’s statute of limitations for personal injury claims is three years from the date of injury. Call (843) 642-2449 or visit our Charleston office for a free case evaluation.

Why South Carolina Patients Must Act Immediately

South Carolina 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. South Carolina patients are eligible to file claims in this litigation on the same basis as patients in any other state.

Marin & Murphy Law Firm is South Carolina-licensed and maintains a Charleston office at 997 Morrison Dr Ste 200, Charleston, SC 29403 (phone: (843) 642-2449). Matthew T. Marin, J.D., is admitted in South Carolina and leads the firm’s South Carolina representation. For South Carolina patients — and particularly for those in the Charleston area seeking care at hospitals throughout the Lowcountry — Marin & Murphy provides licensed, local representation rather than an out-of-state referral arrangement.

South Carolina’s statute of limitations for personal injury claims is three years from the date of injury. For an Olympus scope infection, the clock typically begins on the date the infection was diagnosed, or the date a reasonable person would have known to connect the infection to the scope procedure. Most South Carolina patients infected in 2022, 2023, or 2024 are within their three-year window. Patients infected in 2021 should contact an attorney immediately to confirm their deadline.

Patients who believe their deadline may have passed should still contact us before assuming they have no options Contact Marin & Murphy today for a free case evaluation: (843) 642-2449.

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. 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 that the interventions studied did not clearly reduce contamination rates. A separate 2022 meta-analysis of 9,084 post-reprocessing cultures found a 5% contamination rate even after enhanced cleaning protocols.

(Source: van der Ploeg et al., Gut, 2024;73(4):613-621, PMID 38182137; Bomman et al., Clinical Endoscopy, 2022, PMID 34974676, PMC8831410.) 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, formally pleaded guilty to failing to file FDA-required adverse-event reports about infections.

(Source: DOJ press release, December 10, 2018.) Olympus pleaded guilty in 2018 and paid an $85 million criminal penalty (United States v. Olympus Medical Systems Corp., D.N.J. 2018). Whether and how that record affects the available defenses or proof of causation in any individual case is decided by the court applying the law to the facts. 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 April 202620262026.

Why South Carolina Patients Are at Risk

Olympus holds approximately 70–80% of the U.S. flexible endoscope market, making Olympus devices the most likely endoscope brand encountered in any South Carolina hospital that performs ERCP, colonoscopy, bronchoscopy, or upper GI endoscopy. Hospitals and endoscopy centers throughout South Carolina that perform these procedures are consistent with national Olympus market-penetration figures. No specific outbreak data is being asserted as to any individual South Carolina facility.

If you had a scope procedure at a South Carolina hospital and developed an infection within 30 days, contact us.

Do You Qualify? Confirming Your Potential Claim

The confirmed intake criteria for the Olympus scope litigation establish the minimum threshold for a qualifying South Carolina claim. A South Carolina patient qualifies when all of the following criteria are met.

Even if you believe your filing deadline may have passed, contact us before assuming you have no options. Depending on the circumstances of your case and how a potential global resolution is structured, there may still be options worth exploring with an attorney. Contact Marin & Murphy today for a free case evaluation: (843) 642-2449.

What Should South Carolina Patients Do Now?

If you are a South Carolina patient, you have three years to act. Complete these five steps — starting today.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can South Carolina patients file an Olympus scope lawsuit?

Yes. South Carolina patients who developed infections after Olympus scope procedures may have legal rights in this national product liability litigation. South Carolina’s statute of limitations is three years from the date of injury. Marin & Murphy is a South Carolina-licensed firm with a Charleston office at 997 Morrison Dr Ste 200. Call (843) 642-2449 or visit our Charleston office for a free evaluation.

What is the filing deadline for South Carolina Olympus scope claims?

South Carolina’s statute of limitations for personal injury claims is three years from the date of injury. For most patients, this begins on the date the scope-related infection was diagnosed. Patients infected in 2022 or later are almost certainly within their window. Patients infected in 2021 should contact an attorney immediately. Even patients who believe their deadline has passed should contact us before assuming they have no options.

Which South Carolina hospitals use Olympus scopes?

Olympus holds approximately 70–80% of the U.S. flexible endoscope market. Major SC facilities performing ERCP, colonoscopy, bronchoscopy, and upper GI endoscopy — at hospitals and endoscopy centers across South Carolina — are consistent with national Olympus market penetration figures. We analyze the FDA MAUDE adverse event database for SC-specific reports. If you had a scope procedure at any SC hospital and developed an infection within 30 days, contact us.

I had an ERCP at a South Carolina hospital and developed an infection — what should I do?

Contact Marin & Murphy immediately for a free evaluation. Gather your procedure records (hospital name, date, type of scope used) and infection records (diagnosis, hospitalization dates, IV antibiotic treatment). Calculate your three-year filing deadline from the infection date. Our Charleston office at 997 Morrison Dr Ste 200 is directly accessible to patients across the Lowcountry. Acting before your state’s filing deadline protects your ability to pursue an individual claim.

What is the Olympus scope lawsuit?

The Olympus scope lawsuit is a national product liability litigation against Olympus Medical Systems Corporation for designing and distributing flexible endoscopes with a fixed elevator mechanism that cannot be fully cleaned using standard reprocessing protocols. Olympus pleaded guilty in December 2018 to federal criminal charges and paid $85M, pleaded guilty to failing to file FDA-required adverse-event reports about infections.

Who qualifies to file in South Carolina?

South Carolina patients qualify when: (1) procedure with an Olympus bronchoscope, upper GI endoscope, or colonoscope on or after January 1, 2015; (2) confirmed infection diagnosis; (3) inpatient hospitalization for the infection; (4) IV antibiotic treatment during hospitalization; (5) infection within 30 days of the scope procedure; (6) no active dialysis, chemotherapy, or abdominal procedure in the 30 days prior to the scope procedure.

How much is a South Carolina Olympus scope claim worth?

Case value depends on the specific facts — the severity of the infection, the length of hospitalization, whether there was organ damage, permanent disability, or death, and the economic damages such as medical bills and lost income. Cases involving serious infections, extended hospitalization, or catastrophic outcomes generally carry higher potential value than cases resolved with shorter treatment. Because this litigation is still in its early stages, there is no established settlement matrix, and no specific dollar outcome can be predicted for any individual case.

The most significant publicly reported jury verdict in duodenoscope litigation came in a 2017 King County, Washington case (Bigler v. Olympus), in which the jury awarded $6.6 million to the hospital and $1 million to the patient’s family on a failure-to-warn theory while rejecting the design-defect claim — but prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. See our Olympus scope lawsuit settlement value guide for more information.

That verdict was obtained by the plaintiffs’ trial counsel in that case — not by Marin & Murphy Law Firm, which had no role in the Bigler litigation. In January 2018 the court granted the patient’s family a new trial after finding that Olympus had withheld internal safety records, and the family’s claims were later resolved by confidential settlement. It is cited here as public-record context only; results vary, and no outcome in another case predicts or guarantees a similar result in any other matter.

Does Marin & Murphy handle Olympus scope cases for South Carolina patients?

Yes. Marin & Murphy is a South Carolina-licensed firm with a Charleston office at 997 Morrison Dr Ste 200, Charleston SC 29403. Matthew T. Marin is admitted in South Carolina and leads the firm’s South Carolina representation — this is a home-state representation, not an out-of-state referral. We analyze the FDA MAUDE database for SC-specific adverse event reports as part of our intake process. Contact us at (843) 642-2449 for a free consultation.

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.