Much has happened since a Rapoport Weisberg & Sims P.C. client filed a lawsuit against Chicago-based AM2PAT, Inc., on December 21, 2007. AM2PAT is a company that manufactured contaminated heparin syringes used by hospital outpatients with cancer and other serious illnesses.
On January 18, 2008, the Food and Drug Administration announced an expanded nationwide voluntary recall of heparin and saline flush syringes manufactured by AM2PAT under the brand names Sierra Pre-Filled and B. Braun. This follows a December 20, 2007, recall of only one lot of syringes that were contaminated with Serratia marcescens bacterium, but not until after hundreds of people had used them and dozens of them became severely ill and were hospitalized. The recall states: “This type of bacterial infection could present a serious adverse health consequence that could lead to life-threatening injuries and/or death.”
The new recall goes well beyond the earlier one. It is a “nationwide recall of all lots and all sizes of pre-filled Heparin and normal saline flushes” made by AM2PAT. The basis for the recall is that an ongoing FDA inspection of the manufacturer’s facility has revealed “that the firm is not in compliance with the Quality System regulation and failed to have adequate controls to ensure necessary sterility of its pre-filled syringes.”
Today, following the lead of a Chicago-area woman who sued the manufacturer last month, Rapoport Weisberg & Sims P.C. attorneys filed five additional lawsuits against AM2PAT in the state court in Chicago. Our client explained: “I wish none of this ever happened, but since it did, I’m glad others have decided to join in the effort to bring those responsible to justice. We will be stronger together.” The five people who sued today were all hospitalized for severe infections as a result of using contaminated Sierra Pre-Filled syringes.
Asked about the litigation, David E. Rapoport of Chicago’s Rapoport Weisberg & Sims P.C. and the lead attorney for these six individuals explained: “We are not surprised so many people have followed our first client’s lead on this. Our clients seek justice for the harm they have suffered through no fault of their own. We applaud the work of the Centers for Disease Control and the FDA, and look forward to the time all of the tainted syringes are out of circulation. For now, preventing others from suffering as my clients have is what is most important.”
Rapoport Weisberg & Sims P.C. is a personal injury law firm based in Chicago, Illinois. The personal injury attorneys at Rapoport Weisberg & Sims P.C. have achieved multimillion-dollar verdicts and settlements for individuals with lawsuits arising from medical malpractice, product liability, semitruck and motor vehicle accident, workplace injuries and construction accident in Illinois and Wisconsin. Rapoport Weisberg & Sims P.C.’s premier aviation negligence lawyers represent victims of commercial and general aviation disasters nationwide.
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