4th Minnesota Meningitis Victim Sues

by Associated Press
November 13, 2012 9:26 AM


A Ham Lake woman who contracted meningitis from contaminated steroid shots is suing a New England pharmacy company.
 
Holly Peterson's attorneys say she had a steroid shot in Coon Rapids to relieve her chronic back pain. Lawyer Karl Cambronne says Peterson is suing the New England Compounding Pharmacy. Women in Shakopee, Savage, and Montrose are also suing after receiving shots of steroids from potentially contaminated lots.
 
State health officials say 11 people in Minnesota have been sickened after approximately 1,000 received the fungus-tainted shots.
 
The Centers for Disease Control says the contaminated shots have been linked to the 32 deaths in a meningitis outbreak that has spread to 19 states.
 
Peterson's lawsuit seeks class action status.

Minnesota has reported its 12th confirmed case of fungal meningitis in a national outbreak linked to tainted steroids from a Massachusetts pharmacy.
 
Assistant state epidemiologist Richard Danila says the new case is a Twin Cities area man in his 50s who received an injection at a metro clinic.
 
Danila says he had some symptoms earlier but got better. However, in the last few weeks, his symptoms including headaches got worse again.
 
Danila says the man had a spinal tap earlier but the results were borderline. He says officials weren't able to confirm he had fungal meningitis until he underwent a second spinal tap recently. Danila says the man was not hospitalized.
 
While the pace of new cases is slowing down, Danila says the new case shows more are possible.