LOS ANGELES (AP) — Among the seven people infected by a "superbug" outbreak tied to medical instruments at a Los Angeles hospital is an 18-year-old student who has spent nearly three months in the hospital and is in grave condition, his attorney said. 
 
 This undated photo provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration shows the tip of an endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) duodenoscope, attached to a long tube, not shown. A "superbug"... (Associated Press) 
 
 UCLA medical officials take questions from the media outside the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015. A day earlier, UCLA officials said nearly 180 patients at Ronald... (Associated Press) 
 
 A research assistant with the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA carries a portable cooler marked with a biohazard label past the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, Thursday, Feb.... (Associated Press) 
 
 Dr. Zachary Rubin, medical director of clinical epidemiology and infection prevention at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, left, and Dr. Robert Cherry, chief medical and quality officer for UCLA... (Associated Press) 
 
 ADDS ID OF DOCTORS IN THE BACKGROUND - Dr. David Feinberg, president, UCLA Health System, right, takes questions from the media outside the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles Thursday, Feb.... (Associated Press) 
 
 Dr. Zachary Rubin, medical director of clinical epidemiology and infection prevention at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, right, takes questions from the media in Los Angeles Thursday, Feb. 19,... (Associated Press) 
 
 This illustration released by the Centers for Disease Control depicts a three-dimensional (3D) computer-generated image of a group of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae bacteria. The artistic recreation... (Associated Press) 
 
 Dr. Zachary Rubin, medical director of clinical epidemiology and infection prevention at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, left, takes questions from the media in Los Angeles Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015.... (Associated Press) 
 
 The Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles building is seen in Los Angeles, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015. A "superbug" outbreak suspected in the deaths of two patients at UCLA Medical Center in Los... (Associated Press) 
 
 The young man was struggling not to become the third of those infected at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center to die, Attorney Kevin Boyle said Thursday. 
 
 He had entered the hospital for a procedure that involved using an endoscope to examine his pancreas. 
 
 "They were scoping it out, trying to see what was the matter," Boyle said. "He had no life-threatening condition before like he does now." 
 
 At least seven people — two of whom died — have been infected with a potentially lethal, antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria known as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, after undergoing similar endoscopic procedures. More than 170 other patients may also have been exposed, hospital officials said. 
 
 Boyle declined to release the teenager's name or say where he attends school but said he spent 83 days in the hospital at one point and was released but recently relapsed and is currently hospitalized. 
 
 "After he had the procedure he was released. Then he came down with his illness, and when they studied him and noticed he had the CRE bacteria in him they quickly put two and two together," he said. 
 
 He said the family doesn't blame UCLA but is considering suing the endoscope's manufacturer. 
 
 That hard-to-clean medical instrument used on more than half a million people in the U.S. every year has become the focus of the outbreak investigation. 
 
 The infections may have been transmitted through two contaminated endoscopes that were used to diagnose and treat pancreatic and bile-duct problems. The instruments were found to have "embedded" infections even though they had been cleaned according to manufacturer's instructions, said Dr. Robert Cherry, the hospital's chief medical and quality officer. Five other scopes were cleared. 
 
 Hospital officials said they immediately removed contaminated medical devices and adopted more stringent sterilization techniques. 
 
 Infections of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, have been reported at hospitals around the country, and some have been linked to the type of endoscope used at UCLA. The duodenoscope is a thin, flexible fiber-optic tube that is inserted down the throat to enable a doctor to examine an organ. It typically has a light and a miniature camera. 
 
 The manufacturer of the devices, Olympus Corp. of the Americas, an arm of Japan's Olympus Corp., said in a statement that it emphasizes the importance of meticulous manual sterilization of its instruments. It says it is giving new supplemental instructions to users of the endoscopes and is working with federal officials on the infection problem. 
 
 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday issued an advisory warning doctors that even when a manufacturer's cleaning instructions are followed, germs may linger. The device's complex design and tiny parts make complete disinfection extremely difficult, the advisory said. Between January 2013 and December 2014, the FDA received 75 reports involving 135 patients in the U.S. who may have been infected by tainted scopes. 
 
 In a statement, the FDA said it is trying to determine what more can be done to reduce such infections. But it said that pulling the device from the market would deprive hundreds of thousands of patients of "this beneficial and often life-saving procedure." 
 
 At UCLA, Doctors first discovered the problem in mid-December when a patient underwent an endoscopic procedure and developed an infection that couldn't be treated with antibiotics. 
 
 An investigation was launched and doctors employed high-tech techniques to find other cases — a process that took several weeks, said Dr. Zachary Rubin, medical director of clinical epidemiology and infection prevention. 
 
 It was determined that CRE infections had been passed on from one "source case" patient between Oct. 3 and Jan. 28, Rubin said. 
 
 The hospital has notified potentially exposed patients through letters and phone calls and is offering free testing and treatment options. 
 
 "You can very easily do everything right and still have some contamination," said Dr. Deverick Anderson, an infectious-disease expert at Duke University. "We're finding this is a problem, but it's probably one that we don't have a very good solution to right now." 
 
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 Associated Press writers Robert Jablon and Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles, and AP Medical Writer Mike Stobbe in New York contributed to this report. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Contact Alicia Chang at http://www.twitter.com/SciWriAlicia. 

 A California hospital apologized today to patients who became infected with an antibiotic-resistant bug, and said it has identified the source of the infections: two contaminated endoscopes that were cleaned according to manufacturer instructions but retained the bug anyway. 
 
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 Seven people have become infected with the drug-resistant "superbug" known as CRE at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after undergoing endoscopy procedures, and CRE may have played a role in two of its patients' deaths, the hospital said Wednesday afternoon, adding that 179 people were exposed to the germ. 
 
 The scopes were new and had only been in use since June, said Dr. Zachary Rubin, medical director of clinical epidemiology and infection prevention at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. 
 
 "There are several manufacturers for these scopes," said Dr. Benjamin Schwartz, deputy chief of the acute communicable disease control program, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. "Because of the complexity of these scopes, which is necessary for the life-saving procedures for these scopes, they are very, very difficult to clean. The manufacturer recommendations were followed by UCLA." 
 
 CDC/Reuters 
 
 The first case occurred in mid-December when a patient became ill after undergoing endoscopy to examine his or her gallbladder, the hospital has learned. 
 
 "The patient developed almost immediately an infection afterwards with unusual bacteria that was resistant to strains of normally active antibiotics," Rubin said, explaining that it took time to trace the cases back to this original patient. 
 
 The hospital has now taken all of its scopes out of use, and has implemented additional cleaning protocols beyond manufacturer recommendations. It has emailed and called all patients who underwent endoscopy from Oct. 23 through Jan. 28, officials said. 

 An 18-year-old is among the seven California hospital patients to come down with a deadly drug-resistant "superbug," and he's spent most of the last three months in the intensive care unit, his lawyer told ABC News. 
 
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 "His prognosis at this time is guarded but optimistic," said Pete Kaufman, an attorney for the teen's family. 
 
 The teen already had an acute illness when he underwent an endoscopy procedure at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in December 2014, Kaufman said. 
 
 "Shortly after the procedure, he became gravely ill, and it was determined by the physicians at UCLA that he had contracted the CRE infection," Kaufman said. 
 
 The teen was an inpatient at the hospital for more than two months and spent a "significant amount of that time" in the ICU, Kaufman said. He was released, but returned to the hospital for another endoscopy procedure in January, causing him to become re-infected with CRE. He is still an inpatient at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, the lawyer said. 
 
 "It's the scope, the procedure that is now thought to have caused him to get the CRE infection," Kaufman said, adding that the teen's illness started with a fever and progressively got worse until he was "gravely, gravely ill." 
 
 Seven people have become infected with the drug-resistant "superbug" known as CRE at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after undergoing endoscopy procedures, and CRE may have played a role in two of its patients' deaths, hospital officials said Wednesday afternoon, adding that 179 people were exposed to the germ. 
 
 The scopes were new and had only been in use since June, said Dr. Zachary Rubin, medical director of clinical epidemiology and infection prevention at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. 
 
 "There are several manufacturers for these scopes," said Dr. Benjamin Schwartz, deputy chief of the acute communicable disease control program, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. "Because of the complexity of these scopes, which is necessary for the life-saving procedures for these scopes, they are very, very difficult to clean. The manufacturer recommendations were followed by UCLA." 
 
 Kaufman, who has not yet filed any lawsuits on behalf of the victims, told ABC News that the focus of his case is the endoscope manufacturer, Olympus. An initial search did not reveal any existing legal cases against Olympus Corporation that are related to its endoscopes. 

 UCLA hospital officials said they began investigating the possibility of a deadly bacterial outbreak in mid-December, but one patient's account suggests they missed a chance to discover the problem much earlier. 
 
 That patient, an 18-year-old man still hospitalized at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center, was first diagnosed in October with the drug-resistant superbug CRE after he was treated with a medical scope tied to outbreaks at hospitals across the country, his attorney said Thursday. 
 
 UCLA declined to discuss specific patients but said it acted swiftly as soon as it discovered the problem. According to its timeline, the hospital identified the first patient in mid-December and immediately launched a full-scale investigation. 
 
 Officials said it took until Jan. 28 for doctors to confirm the infections were tied to the medical scopes used in endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, or ERCP. 
 
 Some medical experts caution that it can be difficult to connect the dots when an initial case pops up. The hospital said seven patients were infected and 179 more may have been exposed. 
 
 Los Angeles attorney Pete Kaufman said his client was diagnosed with CRE in October at the hospital. He declined to identify the patient by name. The San Fernando Valley man became infected after he was treated with a duodenoscope. 
 
 The patient recovered and was released in January, Kaufman said. The man returned to UCLA that same month and got re-infected with CRE after undergoing a second scope, according to the family. 
 
 Kaufman said he's still being treated at UCLA and his prognosis for recovery is good. 
 
 For their part, Kaufman said the patient's family blames the medical device manufacturer, not UCLA, for the infection. 
 
 “We don't think that UCLA did anything wrong,” he said. “Based on the early investigation we think it is the fault of the manufacturer for not determining an effective cleaning protocol” for the medical scope used. 
 
 CAPTION Superbug infects 4 Cedars-Sinai patients, dozens more potentially exposed Superbug infects 4 Cedars-Sinai patients, dozens more potentially exposed CAPTION Superbug infects 4 Cedars-Sinai patients, dozens more potentially exposed Superbug infects 4 Cedars-Sinai patients, dozens more potentially exposed CAPTION Deadly superbug-related scopes were sold without FDA approval Deadly superbug-related scopes were sold without FDA approval CAPTION Superbug kills two at UCLA hospital Superbug kills two at UCLA hospital CAPTION Deadly superbug possibly infects nearly 200 UCLA patients Deadly superbug possibly infects nearly 200 UCLA patients 
 
 At a news conference Thursday, UCLA officials made no mention of a CRE case in October while discussing their investigative timeline. A university spokeswoman declined to comment on any specific patients and their treatment, citing patient confidentiality. 
 
 Dr. Zachary Rubin, medical director of clinical epidemiology and infection prevention at UCLA Medical Center, said the hospital is always on the lookout for the CRE bacteria but didn't see any sign of a bigger problem until December. 
 
 Some medical experts said that confirming the link between CRE and the scopes often takes extensive detective work and sifting through numerous causes for an infection. L.A. County health officials also defended UCLA's response to the outbreak. 
 
 “I want to commend the strong work by my colleagues at UCLA in detecting the outbreak and preventing further cases from occurring,” said Dr. Benjamin Schwartz, deputy chief of the acute communicable disease control program at the L.A. County Department of Public Health. 
 
 Dr. Bret Petersen, a professor of medicine in gastroenterology and hepatology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said a single case of CRE in October wouldn't necessarily raise red flags because the bacteria can be picked up many different ways in a hospital. 
 
 Petersen said it can take weeks or months for an infection to develop in patients and symptoms can vary from fever and chills to an infection in the lungs or urinary tract. 
 
 “If you experience one case at a time over a few months it's not so clear-cut,” Petersen said. 
 
 Meanwhile, other patients and their families worried about what the outbreak means for them and contended that UCLA should have alerted them sooner. 
 
 Bakersfield resident Sheila Adamczyk said she called her daughter's doctor Thursday, searching for answers after seeing news of the outbreak. 
 
 Her 16-year-old daughter, Bailee, was treated with a scope similar to the ones involved in the outbreak at UCLA in October and again in December related to a cancer screening. 
 
 “I want to know what the hell is going on and I want to know right now,” Adamczyk said. “They had two deaths. They knew this had taken place.” 
 
 The hospital said it had notified the majority of the 179 other patients who may have been exposed from Oct.3 to Jan. 28. 
 
 UCLA Health System President David Feinberg apologized for the outbreak that contributed to two deaths, five other infections and widespread distress in the community. 
 
 “Our hearts go out to the families of the two patients who passed away and to the patients who are infected and to the ones who are having anxiety awaiting their test results,” Feinberg said. 
 
 Nationally, about half a million patients each year undergo ERCP procedures, in which doctors thread a specialized endoscope down the patient's throat to examine and treat cancer, gallstones and other issues in the digestive system. 
 
 CRE, which stands for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, are germs that have become difficult to treat because they are resistant to most antibiotics. 
 
 The bacteria can lead to death in up to 50% of patients who become infected, according to the CDC. 
 
 UCLA said it hasn't had any further infections since it changed its decontamination procedures for the endoscopes involved. 
 
 After the outbreak, UCLA switched to gas sterilization of its duodenoscopes. Some other hospitals have turned to that technique in the wake of similar outbreaks at other hospitals across the country since 2012. 
 
 Olympus, the market leader in duodenoscopes, said in a statement Thursday that it is making available to its customers supplemental educational materials, including an interactive checklist with video demonstrations. 
 
 “We are working with the FDA, relevant medical societies and our customers regarding these concerns,” the company said. 
 
 Q&A: What makes CRE superbugs so dangerous? 
 
 How safe is your hospital? A look at California ratings 
 
 Let us know if you have been affected by the outbreak at UCLA 
 
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– Two of seven patients infected by a "superbug" at an LA hospital have died, and now an 18-year old is battling to keep from being the third. According to the AP, the teen had gone to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center late last year to undergo a procedure that used a duodenoscope—now believed to be one of two contaminated with the superbug—to examine his pancreas. "Shortly after the procedure, he became gravely ill, and it was determined by the physicians at UCLA that he had contracted the CRE infection," lawyer Pete Kaufman tells ABC News. But the Los Angeles Times reports the teen may have been infected twice: Kaufman says the teen had been diagnosed with the bug in October, treated for three months, and released; he was reportedly reinfected with CRE when he went back in January for a second endoscopy. Though Kaufman says the boy had an "acute illness" before undergoing the endoscopies, a second lawyer for the family, Kevin Boyle, tells the AP, "They were scoping it out, trying to see what was the matter. He had no life-threatening condition before like he does now." Boyle framed his condition as grave; Kaufman tells ABC News the teen had been "gravely, gravely ill" but "his prognosis at this time is guarded but optimistic." The teen's parents aren't miffed at UCLA: They may sue the endoscope's maker for not establishing an effective cleaning process. "Because of the complexity of these scopes … they are very, very difficult to clean. The manufacturer recommendations were followed by UCLA," a local Department of Public Health official said, per ABC News. Another 179 UCLA patients were possibly exposed.