Boston: Trial concluding for pharmacist charged in deadly meningitis outbreak

[TomSea]

Trial concluding for pharmacist charged in deadly meningitis outbreak
[Reuters] By Nate Raymond March 16, 2017

BOSTON (Reuters) - A federal prosecutor urged jurors on Thursday to find the co-founder of a now-defunct Massachusetts pharmacy guilty of murder over the deaths of 25 people during a meningitis outbreak in 2012 caused by contaminated drugs sold by his company.

Barry Cadden, 50, ran the New England Compounding Center in an "extraordinarily dangerous way," in unsanitary conditions that led to the steroids that it produced being tainted with mold, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Strachan told a federal jury in closing arguments in Boston.

Strachan said Cadden knew people could die if they were injected with contaminated steroids, yet ignored the rules, leading to an outbreak that sickened 751 people in 20 states, including 64 who died.

"It was preventable, but it happened, because this man, Barry Cadden, decided to put profits ahead of patients," she said.

Continued: https://www.yahoo.com/news/trial-concluding-pharmacist-charged-deadly-u-meningitis-outbreak-100804654--sector.html

Wow. Some of the news most of us aren't even aware of. 64 people died in up to 20 states.  Steroids for the broad category that could be.

[TomSea]

This lady was affected by these steroids:

Woman sickened by tainted steroids then loses husband
Tells 5 Investigates she wants jury to deliver justice to Barry Cadden
WCVB  |  Updated: 6:15 PM EDT Mar 17, 2017

Angel Farthing's life was full. She was married, lived in Maryland, had her own business and was close to family and friends.

She never imagined how quickly it all could disappear following what she should would be a simple shot in her spine for back pain.

"For the first several years I often wished that I did not make it through. I was in that much pain that death would have been better," Farthing said.

Angel was injected in 2012 with a steroid shot made at the Framingham-based New England Compounding Center. It was contaminated with black mold, and like more than 700 others around the country injected with the same tainted medicine, she got fungal meningitis.

Continued: http://www.wcvb.com/article/woman-sickened-by-tainted-steroids-then-loses-husband/9149287

The doctor pharmacist apparently is being tried for murder, the case is in jury deliberations currently.  If he were in a death penalty state, perhaps he could be executed. I guess it depends on "murder in the first degree" and so on.

[Idaho_Cowboy]

I remember when this happened. Freaky story.