A woman from New Jersey who contracted fungal meningitis due to contaminated steroid injections has filed a lawsuit against those she feels responsible. Andre Gould, 55 year old resident of Millville, New Jersey, has asserted in her lawsuit that her condition is a result of negligence on the part of the New England Compounding Center (NECC). The NECC prepared the steroid injections before distributing them. According to reports, Gould has filed the first lawsuit in the state of New Jersey related to the fungal meningitis outbreak. The case has so far taken 31 lives nationwide.
The lawsuit holds that the NECC pharmacy did not follow standard safety procedures for state licensed compounding pharmacies in producing the steroid injections. Gould further maintains that she received her injection at the South Jersey Medical Center on September 27th, even though the Federal government issued a recall on the steroids a full day earlier.
“Mrs. Gould, who also suffers from debilitating kidney disease, experiences constant headaches, chills and continuing intense back pain associated with the tainted steroid injections,” said Gould’s attorney, Michael F. Barrett. “On October 18, 2012, she tested positive and her physicians immediately admitted her to the hospital, where she received antifungal medications.”
The federal government has launched a full criminal investigation into the NECC’s practices related to the case. The Board of Pharmacy has also permanently revoked the NECC’s license to operate in the state of Massachusetts.
This news comes as the NECC is seeking to consolidate the assorted lawsuits related to this meningitis outbreak and the deaths that have resulted as a part of it. While 31 people have thus far died from the outbreak as of this writing, nearly 500 people have been reported as infected with fungal meningitis as a result of NECC-prepared steroid injections being administered.
There is no word on whether Ms. Gould’s lawsuit will be included in the consolidated cases.
