Only one new case of infection
from a fungus-tainted spinal steroid has been reported nationally in the past
month, but two Tennessee victims of the national outbreak have been identified
for the first time in newly filed federal court cases.
The U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention reported Thursday that the one new case was reported in
an Indiana patient, who has an infection at the site of the steroid injection.
That pushed the total number of
cases since the outbreak was first reported last October to 750 patients
affected by the contaminated steroid shipped from a now-defunct Massachusetts
drug compounding pharmacy.
In Tennessee the number of cases
remains at 153, with 15 deaths reported. That is second only to Michigan, with
264 patients affected and 19 deaths. Indiana has reported 91 patients affected,
with 11 deaths.
Two of those Tennessee victims
became known for the first time Thursday with suits filed in U.S. District
Courts in Nashville and Boston.
According to the 52-page
complaint filed in Nashville, Elfrieda Wiley, 54, of Gallatin was referred in
July 2012 to the Saint Thomas Outpatient Neurosurgical Center by a physician at
the Howell Allen Clinic, part owner of the neurosurgical center.
She was injected in the spine
with methylprednisolone acetate on July 31, Aug. 14 and Sept. 6 of last year.
On Oct. 15, she went to the
emergency room and was diagnosed with fungal meningitis. She was then
hospitalized for three weeks.
Late notice
The suit states that although the
neurosurgery center had shut down voluntarily on Sept. 20, it wasn’t until
early October that Wiley received a letter indicating the center was
investigating several cases of meningitis in patients who had received
injections.
“That letter was the first notice
Mrs. Wiley ever received indicating she was at risk of contracting meningitis,”
the complaint states.
The suit names as defendants the
neurosurgical center, Saint Thomas West Hospital and the Howell Allen Clinic,
along with the owners of the bankrupt company that produced the tainted steroid
and related companies, including a testing company that was hired to test
samples of the drug for sterility.
The suit was filed on behalf of
Wiley and her husband, Elton, by Nashville lawyers George Nolan and William
Leader.
The drugs were shipped all over
the country by the New England Compounding Center, which shut down and filed
for bankruptcy late last year. A federal judge has officially declared the firm
insolvent.
Conspiracy alleged
The complaint charges the
defendants with negligence, civil conspiracy and violations of state product
liability law.
It is the first to specify a
civil conspiracy claim by charging that the Nashville neurosurgery center and
its two key employees “acted in concert with NECC to accomplish the unlawful
purpose of circumventing Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy patient safety
requirements.”
The second suit was filed on
behalf of Wilma S. Carter of Crossville, who contracted fungal meningitis after
getting a spinal steroid treatment at the Specialty Surgery Center in
Crossville.
According to the complaint,
Carter became ill in early October and was eventually hospitalized for
treatment of fungal meningitis. She later developed an abscess at the injection
site and was hospitalized again from Oct. 30 to Nov. 9.
The suit states that Carter was
out of work for an extended period ending on Jan. 7.
Defendants in that suit include
Ameridose LLC, the sister company to NECC, and the individual owners of the two
companies. It charges them with negligence and engaging in deceptive trade and
business practices.
Additional lawsuits are likely in
the next few weeks as victims face a one-year deadline to file claims under the
state health care and product liability laws.
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