Tennessee Injury Lawyer Blog
As many of you have heard, that has been a tragic event in Tennessee, where it appears that some people may have been infected with meningitis as a result of a contaminated drug. The drug that is under suspision is used in epidural steroid injection. It is difficult to understand how such a tragedy can happen in light of the safety protocols that are generally taken in the packaging and storing of medications.
According, to a recent story it also appears that there may be a need to make sure everyone is aware of the potential dangers that did exist. Specially, on patient received a steroid injection for lower back pain from Saint Thomas pain clinic on September 18, 2012. Following the procedure on September 27th, she received a call from the clinic asking her about any symptoms she was experiencing. They never mentioned meningitis and never mentioned that thirteen people who received the injections at the clinic between July 30, 2012, and Sept. 20 have contracted the rare, non-contagious form of meningitis, and two of them have died. She had to find out on the news about the meningitis.
Laurie stated she was upset and frightened to learn this news through the news rather than directly from the clinic and worries other people who could be affected might not know. The type of meningitis is fungal meningitis which can be difficult to diagnose and tough to treat. The Food and Drug Administration has recalled the steroid injection however the Center for Disease Control has yet to determine the injection as the source of the infection. The Saint Thomas clinic voluntarily shut down and will not reopen until the Tennessee Department of Health and CDC are confident the problems have been resolved.
Hopefully, the CDC can get some answers as to how this happened and how it can be avoided in future.
