First lawsuits filed over meningitis outbreak

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By Lisa Keen
Dolan Media Newswires

The first lawsuits have been filed by plaintiffs claiming they have experienced symptoms of meningitis or contracted the bacterial infection after receiving contaminated steroid injections distributed by a Massachusetts-based company.

The first suit was filed Oct. 11 in federal court in Minnesota by Barbe Puro, who claims that steroid injections produced by New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass., caused her to have symptoms of meningitis. The injections are used to treat back and joint pain.

While Puro’s diagnosis had not yet been confirmed at press time, 23 people who also had injections of the drug have died from meningitis attributed to contaminated vials. The suit was filed on behalf of Puro and all others similarly situated in Minnesota, a number the complaint puts at about 1,000.

The complaint says Puro received epidural injections of methylprednisone acetate on Sept. 17 to ease her back pain. It charges NECC with negligence and seeks damages exceeding $5 million.

“After receiving the injections, [the] plaintiff suffered headaches and nausea for approximately a week,” according to the complaint. The Minnesota Department of Health contacted Puro to advise her that she had received the contaminated product and should consult her doctor for potential fungal meningitis.

Rochester, Mich., attorney Alyson Oliver has filed the first application seeking to consolidate the suits in a multidistrict litigation. The Oct. 16 application seeks to consolidate all related federal lawsuits nationwide in Minnesota before U.S. District Court Judge Donovan W. Frank.

Oliver represents plaintiff Brenda Bansale, who received an injection of NECC’s methylprednisolone acetate at a clinic in Brighton, Mich., on Aug. 28 and developed meningitis-like symptoms on Oct. 4. The MDL application identifies three other federal lawsuits with similar claims – another from Michigan and two from Minnesota, including the suit filed by Puro.

In addition to the four cases identified in the MDL application, at least two other similar suits have been filed in federal court – one in Texas and one in Michigan – and at least five suits have been filed in state court, four in Massachusetts and one in Virginia.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the first case was identified on Sept. 18 in Tennessee. That patient was diagnosed with meningitis 46 days after receiving an epidural steroid injection at an ambulatory surgical center. As of Oct. 23, the CDC had identified 297 cases associated with the use of the injections in 16 states.

A spokesman for NECC did not return calls seeking comment by deadline.

Michael S. Appel of Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen in Boston filed a lawsuit in superior court in Massachusetts on behalf of a Michigan plaintiff on Oct. 19.

He said his conversation with NECC attorneys indicated there are many more cases pending against the company. Appel said he expects most cases will become part of an MDL. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation is scheduled to meet again on Nov. 29 but a date has not yet been set to hear arguments for establishing an MDL in the NECC matter.

NECC recalled all of its products on Oct. 6 “due to the potential risk of contamination.”

Federal health authorities estimate that as many as 14,000 people have been injected with the contaminated compound.