Cancer patient ends up covered in bugs at Henry Ford Hospital

(FOX 2) - A cancer patient went to Henry Ford Hospital for treatment and ended up covered in bed bugs in his room.

Ty Wade says Henry Ford Hospital is the last place she expected to find what appeared to be bed bugs in her father's room, including on his clothes.

"They went to hazmat mode and they had my dad, they showered him down with a hose," Wade said.

Henry Ford says this infestation did not originate in the ER department. They say the bugs were from someone's infested clothing left behind and stuffed underneath the mattress of a stretcher. 

"It's horrifying," Wade said.

As Ty tended to her dad, she had her best friend, Tonee Garrett, try to get answers from the hospital.

"Who was responsible for this, was housekeeping responsible for this, what person from housekeeping was responsible for cleaning his bed?" she said. "They told us they could not give us any names."  

Tonee and Ty say they initially got the runaround from staffers before an administrator told them an investigation was underway.

Prior to that the most information, staffers offered Ty's dad two $5 food vouchers for his troubles. And the most information Ty and Tonee received was from a nurse who tried to school them in entomology.

"Those aren't bedbugs, that's lice (we were told)," Garrett said. "That was the most feedback that we received, that we were incorrect in calling them bedbugs, it should've been termed lice. (As if that made) any difference."

A spokesman for Henry Ford is calling it all an unfortunate situation and says the bugs are not the cause of the hospital. He went on to say they follow strict guidelines to make sure patients don't come in contact with bedbugs.

As for the infested clothing, the hospital doesn't know how it got into Ty's dad's room or how long it had been there.

"(They had) no clue whatsoever, they couldn't tell me if it was the last patient left it or the patient before," Wade said.

"The amount of germs and bacteria that was left on that mattress pad that her father was exposed to, that the patient before him was exposed to. It's clearly not a sanitary environment," Garrett said.

The hospital says in a statement it apologized to the patient and his family. Staffers moved him to another room as soon as they realized what was going on. They say the infested clothing and bedding were tossed out and the stretcher was disinfected before being put back into service. No other patients were affected. 

The full statement from Henry Ford Hospital: