Nashville Outbreak Victims Getting Checks

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Checks have been issued to 90 of 114 victims of the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak who were injected with fungus tainted spinal steroids at a Nashville, Tenn. clinic, according to a report filed today in U.S. District Court in Boston, Mass.
The filings by attorneys for outbreak victims detail expenses that have been incurred in processing the claims and issuing the checks. The exact details of the settlement with the Saint Thomas Outpatient Neurosurgical Center and related parties have not been made public, but it is estimated at more than $20 million.
According to the report by Nashville attorney Benjamin Gastel, a global settlement of the case was reached in September of last year.
The initial payments to victims or their survivors are estimated to equal about 90 percent of the total each claimant is expected to eventually collect. The payments are separate from checks to victims from a national settlement reached in the bankruptcy of the New England Compounding Center.
NECC sold the tainted methylprednisolone to the Nashville clinic and dozens of other health facilities across the country. NECC's then president, Barry J. Cadden, was sentenced to a nine year prison sentence on Monday for his role in the outbreak.
The filing in the Saint Thomas action seeks the approval of U.S. District Judge Rya W. Zobel for payments totaling just under $100,000.
A payment of $60,000 is being requested for a Louisiana firm, Perry Dampf Dispute Solutions, which was hired as the administrator of the claims. The second request is for $39,375 to Epiq Systems, Inc., the firm hired to process and issue the individual checks. Epiq played a similar role in the national settlement.
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