NEWBURGH – About two dozen men and women mounted stationary bikes in the parking lot of Gold’s Gym in the Town of Newburgh on Saturday to support a cause championed by former New York State Lt. Governor Betsy McCaughey.

The New York City resident several years ago launched the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths and is aimed at eradicating infections at hospitals.

“We don’t even have to put a spin on this; this is a spin-a-thon but the straight truth is that more people are killed by these hospital infections than from AIDS, breast cancer, and auto accidents combined.”

One woman who participated in the four hours of peddling was Pat Moore-Carol of Salisbury Mills. She lost her son Brad, 28, to what she said was MRSA, the staph infection that can be found in healthcare facilities.

“He had his whole life ahead of him,” she said, on the sixth anniversary of Brad contacting the illness. “In the State of New York, they don’t even put it on the death certificate,” said Moore-Carol. They listed her son’s cause of death as pneumonia. “It’s all a conspiracy.”

She attributed the MRSA to the unclean conditions at the hospital.

McCaughey has been meeting with supporters, families of victims and hospital officials, trying to have the hospitals adopt practices to keep them clean.

“Restaurants in New York are inspected for cleanliness, but not hospitals,” she said.

Officials from area hospitals could not be reached for comment over the weekend.