I-Team: Suspected Victims Of Meningitis Outbreak Sue NH Company
CONCORD, NH (CBS) – Suspected victims of the meningitis outbreak linked to New England Compounding Center are now suing the chain of New Hampshire pain clinics that gave them the drugs.
Thirteen patients of PainCare clinics filed suit against the company Wednesday. They say they have been sick since being injected with contaminated pain medication manufactured at NECC.
"You know something is going on. Something got into my body and is causing havoc on me," says one of the plaintiffs, a woman who asked the I-Team to hide her identity.
She believes that something is fungal meningitis, the result of a shot she received at the Merrimack, New Hampshire PainCare location. The medicine she received was from a contaminated lot manufactured by NECC in Framingham. The same drugs led to a national outbreak that sickened hundreds of patients and killed 64 people.
"I suffer every day. Every day I feel like I'm letting my family down," the plaintiff said of the constant pain and dizziness she endures.
More than 700 patients received NECC drugs from Pain Care. Many tested negative for meningitis. Now the I-Team has learned 13 of them who became symptomatic are suing the company and its owner, Dr. Michael O'Connell.
"They've gotten off scot-free, they're still operating," said Concord based Attorney Peter McGrath, a former federal prosecutor who represents the alleged victims.
The lawsuit claims PainCare ordered "bargain basement drugs" in mass quantities instead of providing specific prescriptions.
"If you hold the vials of medicine up to the light and look at them you can see chunks of debris in them. And they were mislabeled, they were not properly dispensed," McGrath said.
In a statement PainCare's lawyer told the I-Team they do not believe there are proven infections among their patients.
They also say "PainCare followed all of the applicable policies and procedures regarding ordering and administering drugs..." including those from NECC.
For patients, the lawsuit is a way to recoup some of her medical expenses. The plaintiff the I-Team spoke with has accrued more than $200,000 in debt from that one injection.
She is part of a $100 million settlement agreed to by NECC, but because of the huge number of plaintiffs, she does not expect to receive much in the way of compensation. For her there's no end in sight to the pain or the bills.
"It's grim," she said. "Because it's been over two years and I'm not doing any better. I'm really not."
Dr. Michael O'Connell has since voluntarily given up his medical license as part of a settlement with regulators in an unrelated matter.
He remains the CEO of the PainCare clinics and they continue to see patients and dispense medicine.
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