Lab chief faces sentencing in Michigan 12 years after fatal US meningitis outbreak
The head of a specialty pharmacy will be sentenced in Michigan for 11 deaths more than a decade ago that were tied to tainted steroids
HOWELL, Mich. (AP) — Days after a routine injection to ease back pain, Donna Kruzich and a friend drove across the border to Canada in 2012 to see end-of-summer theater in Stratford, Ontario.
The 78-year-old Michigan woman suddenly became ill and returned home. By early October, she was dead.
“Most of the time she could not communicate with us. She was basically in a coma,” son Michael Kruzich recalled. “We knew she had meningitis — but we didn't know how she got it."
Evidence soon emerged: Donna Kruzich was one of at least 64 people in the U.S. who died because of tainted steroids made by a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts. Nearly 12 years later, the operator of New England Compounding Center is returning to a Michigan court Thursday for his sentence for involuntary manslaughter.
