Posted by: Salvatore J. Zambri, founding partner
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that an anesthesiologist testified that “the 50-milliliter vials of anesthetic linked to a hepatitis C outbreak would have been enough to knock out a 600 pound gorilla during a colonoscopy,” in the trial of Henry Chanin who was infected with hepatitis C during a 2006 colonoscopy in a Southern Nevada clinic. Chanin is suing Teva Parenteral Medicine and Baxter Healthcare Services on product liability issues claiming that “the companies made and sold vials of propofol that were much larger than needed for colonoscopies, which tempted medical workers to reuse vials among patients instead of throwing away unused anesthetic.”
Hospitals and doctors should never reuse vials. Doing so clearly and seriously threatens the health of patients. We hope a lesson is learned here, although for many Americans it is too late, as they have suffered terrible health problems from the apparent misuse of the vials.
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About the author:
Mr. Zambri is a Past-President of the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. He has been acknowledged by Washingtonian magazine as a “Big Gun” and among the “top 1%” of all of the more than 80,000 lawyers in the Washington metropolitan area. The magazine also acknowledges him as “one of Washington’s best–most honest and effective lawyers” who specializes in medical malpractice matters, product liability claims, and serious automobile accident claims. Mr. Zambri has also been repeatedly named a “Super Lawyer” by Law and Politics magazine–a national publication that honors the top lawyers in America.
Mr. Zambri is regularly asked to present seminars to lawyers and doctors, as well as both medical and law students concerning medication errors, medical malpractice litigation, and safety improvements.
If you have any questions about your legal rights, please email Mr. Zambri at [email protected] or call him at 202-822-1899.