Lawsuits filed against Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in child deaths
By Paul Harasim (Las Vegas Review Journal) October 2013
Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center and its director of pharmacy, Wilson Chu, purchased a contaminated cardiac drug from an unaccredited compounding pharmacy that ultimately led to the 2012 deaths of two Las Vegas children, two lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court allege.
They did so, according to the suit filed last week, largely because the pharmacy offered cheaper prices.
The suit also contends Sunrise did not follow recognized standards to confirm the drug’s safety.
Filed on behalf of the families of 6-year-old Zacharie Nicholas Rood-Sucharzewski and 4-year-old Ari Thomas Gomez, the lawsuits charge that Sunrise bought contaminated cardioplegia solution in bulk from the New England Compounding Center (NECC), an unaccredited compounding pharmacy responsible last year for an outbreak of fungal meningitis in the United States that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says has caused 64 deaths. The two youngsters underwent open heart surgery at Sunrise.
John Thornton, a California lawyer handling the cases along with attorney Peter Wetherall of Las Vegas, charged: “Hospitals that chose to outsource their drugs from NECC would have discovered irregularities had they followed recognized standards to confirm sterility.”
Spokesman Brendan Bussmann explained Sunrise’s position:
“As soon as Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center learned some New England Compounding Center products had been recalled, we immediately pulled all NECC products from our inventory. However, a small number of our patients had already received doses of medication from NECC. To the best of our knowledge, the medications have not currently been confirmed as causing infections and authorities believe the risk is very low. Because of Sunrise’s commitment to quality care and the safety of its patients, we notified these patients out of an abundance of caution as advised by U.S. Food and Drug Administration.”
Both Katrina Eldeth, Ari’s mother, and Alan Zucharzewski, Zacharie’s father, learned in letters dated Oct. 18, 2012 from Sunrise that the drug given their sons on the days of their 2012 operations had been recalled. In October 2012, the FDA issued a warning that cardioplegia may be contaminated.
Both lawsuits allege that the boys developed serious infections from the cardioplegia solution and that they spent more than a month in critical condition before dying.
Neither parent agreed to be interviewed.
Until now, the primary focus of lawsuits against NECC nationwide has been on contaminated steroid injections doctors administer for lower back pain. According to the CDC, 750 people from 20 states are now being treated for infections from those tainted spinal injections, but none of them are from Nevada. NECC is also the target of state and federal criminal probes.
The lawsuits filed on behalf of the young boys, which also name the owners of NECC as defendants, are the first relating to injuries from a contaminated heart drug.
Cardioplegia solution is used during complicated heart surgeries to suspend cardiac activity. The lawsuit states that the solution used during the boys’ operations was recalled by NECC after authorities discovered widespread bacterial and fungal contamination throughout NECC’s facilities.
Sunrise should have known the danger of using drugs that were not from FDA-approved manufacturers, the lawsuits state. According to the suits, “Cheaper prices … was one of the factors prompting” Sunrise to purchase NECC’s cardioplegia solution.
Chu and Sunrise also didn’t take investigative steps necessary to determine if NECC could provide a safe drug for open heart surgery procedures, the lawsuit states.
The suits also charge that Sunrise knowingly submitted false names in lieu of valid, actual patient names on NECC’s prescription order forms in violation of Massachusetts law — a tactic, the suit alleges, that allowed Sunrise to “illegally obtain compounded drugs from NECC in bulk.”
According to the suit, Sunrise and Chu are guilty of a violation of Nevada’s public health and safety prescription fraud law, which provides that any person “who knowingly or intentionally obtains” a drug through “misrepresentation” is guilty of a category E felony.
Categories
- Benefits Resources
- Bonding
- BOP
- Business Insurance
- Commercial Auto
- Commercial Property
- Company News
- Construction
- Crime Insurance
- Cyber Insurance
- Directors & Officers
- Employee Benefits
- Employment Practice Liability Insurance
- Entertainment
- General Liability
- Health Insurance
- Healthcare
- Healthcare Reform
- Homeowners Insurance
- Hospitality
- Manufacturing
- Medical Malpractice
- Mining & Energy
- Nightclubs
- Personal Auto
- Personal Insurance
- Professional
- Restaurants
- Retail & Wholesale
- Risk Management Resources
- Safety Topics
- SBA Bonds
- Security
- Seminars
- Technology
- Tourism
- Transportation
- Uncategorized
- Workers Compensation
Archives
- May 2021
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- November 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- February 2013
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- March 2011
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- April 2010
- February 2010
- November 2009
- October 2009
- November 2008
- August 2008