Sewage leaks in operating rooms still plague MedStar Washington Hospital Center, D.C., a hospital for VIPs, according to an article on the USA Today website.

A black, grainy foul-smelling substance coated the floor of an operating room, which also suffered from at least one "active leak" of sewage, according to a review by the District of Columbia health department last August.

That health department report was cited in a lawsuit filed against the hospital by the husband of a woman who died from a post-operative infection after surgery at the hospital, where the operating rooms had suffered from leaks of bacteria-filled sewage for months, the article said.

Staff and contractors the hospital identified as being responsible for cleanup told investigators they were not made aware of a leak in an operating room where several patients were operated on last July, according to the health department report reviewed by USA TODAY. The sewage leaks were known as "black water" leaks, employees told the inspectors. 

Read the article.