In 2007 Illinois-based pharmaceutical company AM2 PAT, Inc. manufactured heparin-filled syringes contaminated with the dangerous bacteria serratia marcescens then sold the dangerous syringes to various distributors who provided them to unsuspecting patients. Many of the patients who used the syringes became seriously ill from exposure to the bacteria. The victims looked to AM2 PAT and the suppliers to compensate them for the injuries, medical expenses and other losses caused by the contaminated syringes. The majority of these cases are pending in Chicago where the Circuit Court of Cook County has appointed the product liability lawyers of Rapoport Law Offices, P.C. as liaison counsel on behalf of all of the victims nationwide.
Shortly after selling the defective syringes AM2 PAT went out of business, leaving nothing behind to compensate the victims of the corporation’s wrongdoing except $1.8 million in insurance coverage. The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois was charged with deciding how that money should be allocated among AM2 PAT’s victims. After lengthy negotiation led by the attorneys of Rapoport Law Offices, the Federal Court has now approved a settlement. This week the Court issued payment to the victims.
This is the first payment for most of these victims but we do not expect it to be the last. These patients relied upon their medical suppliers to give them medication that was safe to use. Instead they were sold contaminated medication that caused them harm, and the corporations that sold the dangerous syringes have a legal duty to provide fair compensation to those harmed. So far these corporations are refusing to take responsibility for the harm they caused. Ultimately it will take a judge and jury to force these corporations to pay fair compensation as the law requires.
