Meningitis victim files suit as 1-year deadline nears

Written by Walter F. Roche Jr.  

the Tennessean

In the first of what is expected to be a series of last-minute lawsuits stemming from the nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak, a complaint has been filed in U.S. District Court in Nashville by a Murfreesboro man who contracted meningitis from a tainted steroid injection.
The 62-page complaint filed Wednesday comes as an October deadline is approaching. Under Tennessee law, there is a one-year time limit on health-care liability claims. Filings in a related suit in federal court in Boston show that dozens of additional suits are likely.
The existence of the outbreak was first disclosed by Tennessee and federal officials on Oct. 1, 2012.
The suit filed on behalf of Frederick and Loduska May charges that health-care providers were negligent, provided substandard care and violated product liability statutes in the care and treatment of Frederick May.
The couple had earlier filed a similar suit in circuit court in Nashville but that was dropped voluntarily several months ago.
The meningitis outbreak has killed 63 patients nationwide and sickened 749, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fifteen patients treated in Tennessee have died while 153 have been sickened.
Dozens of cases filed on behalf of the outbreak victims already have been merged in federal court in Boston and the May case is expected to be moved there eventually.
Frederick May, according to the suit, received three injections of methylprednisolone acetate at Saint Thomas Outpatient Neurosurgical Center, with the last coming on Sept. 10, 2012. While on vacation in early October, he was diagnosed with fungal meningitis and hospitalized in Florida, according to the complaint.
“As a direct and proximate result of the contaminated epidural steroid injections, Fred May contracted fungal meningitis, became very ill, and continues to suffer from the effects of fungal meningitis,” the complaint states.
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