OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #221413826
HME SPECIALISTS LLC
ALBUQUERQUE, NM·
Event description
Two Employees with COVID-19 infection die
Investigation abstract
Two employees were working for a medical equipment supplier. Employee #1 managed center. Employee #2 was a Patient Supply Coordinator in a supply department for the same location as Employee #1. Employee #2 worked primarily on the second floor with an insurance team from another employer and the onsite employer's specialized care team. Employee #2 shared a cubicle with a coworker and most coworkers in those two teams shared cubicle spaces. Employee #2 primarily interacted with his teams virtually through Microsoft Teams but occasionally entered his supervisor's or manager's office and the cubicles of other team members. On November 11, 2021, Employee #2 began experiencing symptoms but still worked on November 12, 2021, which was his last day and the same day he tested positive. Employee #2 was hospitalized with COVID-19 and placed on a ventilator a rehabilitation department for one location of the company. Employee #1 worked on November 17, 2021. No coworkers were screened for symptoms of COVID-19 between the months of July 2021 and December 2021 and reported coming to work while experiencing COVID-19 related symptoms. Many dismissed their symptoms as allergy related. On November 21, 2021, Employee #1 died and on December 4, 2021, Employee #2 died of COVID-19. The employer did not have an adequate respiratory protection program in place. primarily on the second floor of the building and had consistent interaction with coworkers at that location in the office and in the rehab tech "cage" downstairs in the warehouse. Employee #1 came to work for one week beginning November 8, 2021, while feeling ill and attempted to stay isolated in an office. Employee #1's last day in the office was November 12, 2021. Employee #1 tested positive for COVID-19 on November 15, 2021. On November 20, 2021, he went to the hospital and on November 21, 2021, Employee #1 was transferred to a medical
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 51 F
- Event type
- 12
- Occupation code
- 257
-
#2 Fatality Age 53 M
- Event type
- 8
- Occupation code
- 15
Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.