A class-action lawsuit is being launched against the drug firm that is alleged to have supplied Ontario hospitals with a watered-down cancer drug given to almost 1,000 patients, including 290 at Windsor Regional Hospital, over the last year.
Two firms, Windsor-based Sutts Strosberg and Siskinds, announced Wednesday they’d been retained to launch the class action against Mezentco Inc., a Hamilton company that carries on business under the name Marchese Health Care.
Windsor Regional has confirmed that 17 of the 290 patients given the diluted drug have since died, though it’s not known whether getting the diluted drug contributed to their deaths.
Officials at Windsor Regional were busy Wednesday continuing to get in touch will all the affected patients to provide information and arrange followup appointments with their oncologists.
“This is a shocking revelation for cancer patients affected by this error,” the class-action suit’s lead lawyer, Harvey Strosberg, said in the news release. “As Canadians, we count on world class health care, and we expect and deserve long-term cancer treatment to be done seamlessly and expertly.”
Based on the lawyers’ discussions, he said, “both patients and caregivers are stunned by this news.”
More to come.
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