By Walter F. Roche Jr.
A Maryland appeals court has ruled that the doctor who injected a patient with a fungus laden steroid is not liable in the death of that patient who died within weeks of the injection with preservative free methylprednisolone acetate.
A three judge panel of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals ruled that it was the tainted drug that caused the death and not the actions of Dr. Ritu Bhambhani, a pain doctor and the Box Hill Surgery Center she ran.
The suit was brought by the estate of Brenda Rozek, who died on Sept. 16 of 2012. She had been injected by Bhambhani on Aug. 31.
Lawyers for the estate had argued that Bhambhani was at fault when she bought the steroids from the New England Compounding Center, a now defunct Massachusetts drug compounding company.
The three judge panel rejected that argument in upholding the decision of a Harford County jury that cleared the doctor of liability.
The Rozek suit was one of more than a dozen filed against Bhambhani. None have been successful.
Federal officials say that over 100 patients injected with drugs from NECC have died and nearly 800 have been sickened.
The president and part owner of NECC, Barry Cadden, and supervising pharmacist Glenn Chin were both convicted of federal racketeering, mail fraud and related charges stemming from an investigation of the deadly 2012 outbreak. Chin is serving a 10.5 year federal sentence, while Cadden is serving a 14 year sentence on those federal charges.
The two are now facing second degree murder charges in Michigan in the deaths of patients injected with the fungus laden drugs. Two separate federal juries however, declined to convict the two of federal second degree murder and racketeering charges.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com
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