Hepatitis scare triggers lawyer ads; PR firm mum

In the aftermath of the revelation Wednesday that some patients to a Las Vegas medical clinic were exposed to HIV and hepatitis strains B and C, some attorneys quickly got into an “ambulance-chasing” mode with large ads in Sunday’s Las Vegas Review-Journal while the clinic hastily hired one of the state’s largest public relations firms, observes Grumpy Editor.

Authorities say 40,000 people who underwent medical procedures at Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada are at risk and will be receiving notices this week that they may have been exposed to unsafe procedures between March, 2004 and Jan. 11.

State officials say patients may have been exposed to the diseases when syringes were reused to administer medications.

That was enough to set several law firms into fast action with one-quarter to full-page “infection alert” newspaper ads.

Meanwhile, the clinic hired R&R Partners, a public relations firm that includes the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and Nevada Commission on Tourism on its client list.  When a spokesperson was quizzed by news people, she merely produced a “no comment” on the Friday closure of the clinic “on advice of legal counsel.”

In ads directed at patients who may have been exposed, one law firm showed no shyness with the direct line: “You may be eligible for money damages.”  Another requested:  “Please contact us to discuss your potential legal rights.”

In the battle of the Sunday ads, Dr. Dipak Desai, primary investor who founded the endoscopy center in 1980, also took out an “open letter to our patients and the people of southern Nevada” full-page ad that featured seven paragraphs of text, including the mention: “I want to thank the Southern Nevada Health District for bringing this issue to our attention and for its help in resolving it.”