Outbreak Victims to Attend Chin Trial

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Several victims of a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak will be on hand in a Boston, Mass. courtroom when federal prosecutors begin Tuesday to present their case against a pharmacist charged with second degree murder in the death of 25 patients.
Some of the victims or their survivors will be attending as guests of the federal government while others plan to attend at their own expense.
They will be coming from several states including Kentucky, Florida, Indiana and Georgia. The outbreak, caused by spinal steroids contaminated with deadly fungi, sickened 778 patients in more than 20 states. Seventy-six of them died.
Those slated to attend include the family of Eddie Lovelace, a Kentucky judge who died after getting a spinal injection at a Nashville, Tenn. clinic. Others include a retired police officer from Indiana and an X-Ray technician from New Jersey.
Susan Engel Edwards, who was sickened after an injection at a Minnesota clinic, said she is scheduled to observe the trial in early October. She now lives in Georgia.
Several victims already attended the trial of co-defendant Barry Cadden, the former president of the New England Compounding Center, the now defunct company that produced the tainted steroids. Cadden, who was found guilty of racketeering and conspiracy charges, is serving a nine-year prison sentence.
Dawn Elliott, an Indiana victim of the outbreak, is hoping to attend. Injected five times with tainted steroids, Elliott was on hand for a good portion of the Cadden trial.
The Chin trial is expected to include testimony from former NECC employees, some of who testified at the Cadden trial.
Chin was a supervising pharmacist at NECC and he was in charge of the clean room where contaminated methylprednisolone acetate was produced.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com