The lawsuits have started flying from the lethal fungal meningitis outbreak that reached across the nation, killing 34 people and sickening countless others.
In New Jersey alone, 15 suits have been filed by patients who developed meningitis or were exposed to it after receiving shots of a tainted steroid produced by New England Compounding Center (NECC) in Massachusetts, according to The Record of North Jersey.
The litigation has been filed in Superior Court in Cumberland County, and names NECC as a defendant, along with assorted doctors and medical facilities that administered the steroid, which is used to quell pain.
The patients who have sued include Jose Ramos, 35, of Millville, N.J., according to The Record. He had his steroid injection in August, and came down with headaches, a stiff neck and “visual disturbances,” the paper reported. According to his suit, Ramos will now have to continue taking anti-fungal medication and have blood tests to check his liver.
The contaminated steroid was recalled, and NECC was closed down. Inspections by the Food and Drug Administration found fungus that could be seen with the eye in vials of medication, The Record reported.
So far 34 people have died and nearly 500 have come down with meningitis in a 19 states, according to The Record. In New Jersey 33 patients have been diagnosed with fungal meningitis, and no one had died.
NECC attorneys maintain that the lawsuits should be heard in federal, not state, court. And The Record reported that several of the cases have already been transferred to U.S. District Court in the Garden State.
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