10/16/12 - A Livingston County woman has filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Michigan residents sickened by tainted steroid injections that authorities say are the cause of a fungal meningitis outbreak that has led to at least four deaths in the state. 46-year-old Brenda Bansale of Howell Township filed the lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court in Detroit against the New England Compounding Center, the Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical company that produced the tainted steroids. The lawsuit alleges the company has been selling large quantities of medications to hospitals and clinics, although it is licensed only to fill small, specialty prescriptions for patients. Bansale was diagnosed with fungal meningitis after being injected with the contaminated steroid for back pain. Because itâs a class-action lawsuit, itâs open to any Michigan resident who received or was exposed to injections of the contaminated drug. Bansaleâs lawsuit is at least the second to be filed against the company. A Minnesota woman filed a similar lawsuit last week in federal court there. The Michigan Department of Community Health says that approximately 1,900 people were given the suspect injections at four Michigan clinics including the Michigan Pain Specialists in Brighton, which is where Bansale was treated. Michigan Pain Specialists has said it treated about 875 people with the now-recalled product between Aug. 7 and Oct. 2. Three of the four deaths in Michigan are thought to have been patients of the clinic, including 67-year-old Lillian Cary, also of Howell Township.
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