$10.5M Settlement Reached in Meningitis Outbreak That Killed 19 in Michigan, 64 Nationwide

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Victims and families of about 300 Michigan residents who were infected in 2012 with fungal meningitis from tainted pain medication injections — including 19 who died — will share in a $10.5 million settlement reached Friday in a class action lawsuit involving a Michigan clinic.

They are among 750 people in 20 states who were sickened when a Framingham, MA, pharmacy, the now bankrupt New England Compounding Center, shipped contaminated steroid shots to pain clinics across the country, including a Genoa Township-based group, Michigan Pain Specialists. Nationally, 64 people died in the outbreak.

The settlement in the case against Michigan Pain Specialists was reached Friday before Livingston County Circuit Court Judge David Reader, The Livingston Daily Press & Argus reports.

Eight of the Michigan victims who died lived in Livingston County, four lived in in Washtenaw County, two lived in Grand Traverse County, and one person died in each of the following counties: Wayne, Genesee, Ingham, Charlevoix and Mason, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

The patients are also covered under a $210 million settlement reached against New England Compounding Center. Marc Lipton, of Southfield, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said it’s unclear if the victims and their families will receive damages from either settlement because of federal liens against the bankrupt company to recover Medicare costs.

“This is another step for them, but it’s a long way,” Lipton told The Livingston Daily.

East Lansing attorney Randy Hackney, who represented Michigan Pain Specialists, called the settlement “fair,” but declined additional comment.

The victims have worried that the injections may have compromised their overall health and could lead to future complications, but they agreed in settlement documents not to bring further actions against the Michigan Pain Clinic. That was a key in reaching the settlement, attorneys said.

Fourteen people were criminally charged in the case in 2014. Also that year, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill that boosts oversight of pharmacies that sell compounded medicine, which before the outbreak had been largely free of regulation.

Also as a result of the outbreak, President Barack Obama signed federal legislation regulating compounding pharmacies in 2013.