Fatal Pharmacy Medical Malpractice Case Goes to Trial

The term medical malpractice can evoke images of sketchy doctors and poorly run clinics. But hospitals and doctors are not the only sources of these cases. Millions of people put their lives into the hands of pharmacists every day. These healthcare professionals are tasked with dosing potentially fatal medicines and in some cases, producing them. Carelessness and willful neglect on the part of a pharmacist can easily destroy lives.

 

2012 Fungal Meningitis Case Heading to Trial

The owner and head pharmacist of a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy, NECC, is facing twenty-five counts of second-degree murder due to the alleged dangerous practices of his business. His facility is widely blamed for creating contaminated injectable steroids (preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate) in 2012 that are believed to have sickened 751 people across twenty states and caused sixty-one deaths from fungal meningitis and other diseases.

That meningitis outbreak was the largest recorded in US history. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) writes that this type of meningitis does not to pass from person to person, but rather from things like the spinal injections that the affected patients received. The pharmacist’s other charges include conspiracy, racketeering, and aiding and abetting mail fraud. Jury selection for his medical malpractice case began last week.

A second pharmacist, a supervisor, is also due to stand trial on similar charges. He apparently found his situation so serious that he took it on the lam in 2014 and was apprehended in an airport while trying to escape on a flight to Hong Kong.

 

Poor Practices at Fault

Some of the causes of the contamination in this case were said to have come from producing medicine using expired or expiring ingredients in substandard conditions and failing to clean the facility and sterilize things properly—with multiple staff members falsifying sterilization records and lying about it.

Some of the vials containing the steroid had visible filaments, indicating contamination, as did sterilization equipment with “greenish-yellow residue,” according to The New York Times. The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) said NECC put the health of the public at risk because of “serious deficiencies and significant violations of pharmacy law and regulations.”

One report says that while compounding pharmacies are meant to create individualized prescriptions, this one had turned itself into a major drug supplier to big names like Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School. A large-scale operation would have been subject to tight regulation.

 

Bankruptcy and Attempted Blame

The accused pharmacist’s defense lawyer said that his client did acknowledge that the steroids were tainted. However, he also said, “No one has a good understanding of the source of the contamination . . .” and that his client “. . . feels horrible about the consequences of this.”

The business filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013 and a year later set up a $100 million fund for victims. NECC also tried to spread blame to their cleaning company in a report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, but the cleaning company said that the filing was without merit and that they were only hired to clean once a month.

 

Miami Medical Malpractice Attorney

Cavalier attitudes about rules that were put into place to protect the public can easily result in death, injury, and tragedy. Lavent Law has substantial experience in medical malpractice cases and personal injury law. We help our clients work through the aftermath of someone else’s wrongdoing, be it willful or accidental. In many cases, it’s possible to seek financial compensation.

If this has happened to you, please contact us for a free consultation to discuss any concerns you have about your treatment from a medical provider or any other person or business that has caused you harm. To get started, simply call 305-440-0450 or enter the form below.

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