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Attorney Robert Eglet, center, hugs Henry and Lorraine Chanin in Clark County District Court after a jury found two companies that made and distributed the anesthetic propofol used at Desert Shadow Endoscopy Center liable on multiple counts Wednesday, May 5, 2010.
By Cara McCoy 
Published Wednesday, May 5, 2010 | 3:32 p.m.
Updated Wednesday, May 5, 2010 | 6:20 p.m.
Sun Coverage
Sun Archives
- Jurors to resume hepatitis C deliberations Wednesday (5-4-2010)
- Deliberations continue in first hepatitis C case to reach trial (5-3-2010)
- Jury deliberates in first hepatitis C case to reach trial (4-30-2010)
- Expert: Hepatitis C victim suffered multi-million dollar damages (4-27-2010)
- Man recounts hepatitis C’s effect on health, family (4-26-2010)
- Opening arguments begin in first hepatitis C case to reach trial (4-19-2010)
- Jurors chosen in first hepatitis C case to reach trial (4-15-2010)
- Jury selection begins in first hepatitis C case to reach trial (4-12-2010)
- Insurance company wants cap on payments in hepatitis C cases (2-10-2010)
- Proposed settlements at issue in endoscopy case (1-5-2010)
- Thoroughness, not haste, key in probe of clinic’s insurance billing practices (1-2-2010)
A jury found two companies that made and distributed the anesthetic propofol used at Desert Shadow Endoscopy Center liable on multiple counts Wednesday, awarding a Las Vegas couple more than $5 million in compensatory damages.
Jurors also determined that punitive damages were warranted against the drug companies, the amount of which will be determined in a second round of deliberations.
Henry Chanin, 62, sued Teva Parenteral Medicines Inc. and Baxter Healthcare Corp., the two companies that made and distributed, respectively, the anesthetic propofol used at Desert Shadow Endoscopy Center, where Chanin was infected with hepatitis C during a routine procedure.
He was among thousands who sued in the wake of an investigation by the Southern Nevada Health District that linked the outbreak to several Las Vegas endoscopy centers.
The jury awarded Chanin $3.25 million in compensatory damages. His wife, Lorraine, was awarded $1.85 million.
Punitive damages will be determined after the jury hears arguments Thursday afternoon.
The Chanins’ attorneys, Robert Eglet and Will Kemp, argued throughout the trial that the jumbo-sized vials of the drug led to reuse, causing contamination and infection. They also say the warnings on the vials themselves and on drug packaging inserts were inadequate.
In closing arguments, Eglet described the 50-mililiter vials of propofol as “weapons of mass infection.”
Neither company was found strictly liable for defective design; both were found liable for failure to warn and for breach of implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose.
The companies were also found liable to Lorraine Chanin for loss of consortium.
The Chanins testified they had ceased having intimate relations for fear of possibly infecting Lorraine. Henry Chanin testified that although his hepatitis was controlled by a course of treatment similar to chemotherapy, there is a 5 percent chance the virus could again become active. He said he is no longer as active as he used to be, his stamina is reduced and he has joint pain as a result of treatment.
Hepatitis C can lead to liver disease, including cirrhosis or liver cancer.
In civil trials, six of eight jurors must agree. On Wednesday, not all jurors agreed on all points: when the jury was polled, two said the companies shouldn’t be responsible for punitive damages. One felt Baxter wasn’t responsible on some of the counts. Another said she agreed with the other jurors on all counts except for the amount to be awarded in compensatory damages.
“Clearly, all of the jurors, in one way or the other, found the drug companies were responsible on one of the three claims,” Eglet, who represents Henry Chanin, said during an impromptu news conference outside the courthouse after the verdict was read.
“It shows that we were right all along – that this whole catastrophe started with the drug companies. They literally set the trap – without them selling these vials that were too large to these endoscopy centers, there would have been no opportunity to multi-dose. And there would have been no opportunity for people to be infected,” he said.
Attorneys for the drug companies weren’t available after the proceedings. A call requesting comment wasn’t returned Wednesday evening.
Deliberations began late Friday and continued through early Wednesday afternoon.
During the trial, attorneys for Teva and Baxter said that although they sympathized with the Chanins, they weren’t responsible for the hepatitis infection. In closing arguments, attorney Mark Tully refuted claims that the drug companies put profits ahead of patient safety.
The warnings on the bottles are clear, Tully said. The vials were produced in different sizes to offer more choices to medical professionals, he said.
District Court Judge Jessie Walsh confers with attorneys after a jury found two companies that made and distributed the anesthetic propofol used at Desert Shadow Endoscopy Center liable on multiple counts at the Regional Justice Center Wednesday, May 5, 2010.
Henry Chanin is the headmaster at The Meadows School, a nonprofit, private school in the northwest valley that serves students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. Carolyn Goodman, the school’s president and founder and wife of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, testified on Chanin’s behalf.
She said he was a private man, but his struggles with his health became evident. He told her about the infection after the outbreak made news headlines, she said.
About 50,000 people were notified they needed to undergo testing for hepatitis C, hepatitis B and HIV after the health district investigation.
The Chanins’ suit is the first to be heard by a jury. Portions of the lawsuit were settled before the trial began.
Eglet said his next case involving a hepatitis patient is set for trial in October.
The Chanins, whom he embraced as soon as District Judge Jessie Walsh dismissed the jury, are pleased with the verdict, Eglet said.
The Chanins were unavailable for comment, but Eglet said on their behalf that they believed justice was done.
“They’ve felt that they’ve gotten their day in court,” Eglet said. “What they’ve always wanted out of this was to make sure that this never happened to anyone else, to make sure that this case would change the way these drug companies do business with respect to the drug.”
What a crock. . .I hope that there is a successful appeal that gets this jury verdict set aside.
agreed.
The jury took 2 days to deliberate, indicating they did not arrive at the verdict lightly. So I see no reason to criticize it.
It's too bad they couldn't squeeze the money directly out of Dr. Desai and his organization. Not to mention the health "professionals" who worked there, who seemed to have no clue that being a professional means you have certain responsibilities related to your profession. It was their responsibility as medical professionals to refuse to reuse the vials, and to report it to the authorities if they saw anyone else doing so.
Instead they just went along to get along, and look what happened.
Guilty for all the wrong reasons..... pathetic at best.
Ambulance chasers....Start your engines!!!
That is a rediculous verdict and I hope for a sucessful appeal. It was not the size of the drug containers, but the reuse of used needles that caused the problem. They could have used the drugs many times with clean needles and never have a problem. Do you think flue shots and other shots given by doctors are single dose viles? When are juries going to do the right thing rather than go along with attorney's that are after the deep pocket! Very sad and wrong verdict.
Even if they used 1 time vials the untrained nurses and supervisors could have still cross contaminated the drugs because they reused needles and or syringes. They should NEVER reuse syringes! They were too cheap to buy new needles and syringes and wanted to save 25 cents!!! That is what it costs me at CVS when I get my syringes. You need to sue the doctors because they told the supervisors and nurses to reuse instead of use new. Part of the heath care reform that they passed should have included lawyer reform on suing heath care companies. So next time you get your meds and wonder why your co-pay has gone up, look right here.
I put it to you, if the drug companies should not sell larger vials of drugs then why can alcohol companies sell large bottles/cans of liquor? You are telling people it is OK to drink in excess. Liquor should only be sold in 1 oz containers and you can only buy 3 at a time. That would prevent people from becoming DUI. You never hear about the big liquor companies being sued because someone drank too much and killed someone while they were DUI. Or you never hear about the places that sold the liquor to the person being sued.
I am glad I see others in las Vegas that do not agree with the jury. They (the jurors) better not complain when their heath care costs go up. I will be there saying remember you agreed with the lawyer so now you pay up!!!
Only in Vegas baby! Hope all your insurance rates go up to pay for this ! I don't have insurance, I just get free treatment. This again is when it pays not to be a citizen
This is a bad sign for our city and judicial system. The people who are responsible and only them should be punnished for this crime and it is a crime. The doctors who instructed and the nurses who followed those instructions, even thought they knew it was wrong, are the responsible ones. If this stands I guess we will be having lawsuits against ammo manufactures as it only takes one bullit to kill but they sell in larger quanities.
Comment removed by moderator. Contained a personal attack.
Comment removed by moderator. Off topic.
Logic rules here, why pay when you people pay my bills Thank you senior Reid !
Truth will out.
@dhvinent1 - couldn't agree more. What a travesty. These ridiculous cases where the lawyers just go after the deep pockets and win are part of the reason our health care system is the most expensive in the world. Just crazy. The ones who should be paying are the doctors and the nurses.
I think that those that have a problem with the verdict are missing some very important facts. First this is a day surgery facility all of their uses of propofol will be in small amounts because they need the patient to be sedated at most 15 minutes. So selling large vials to these facilities is selling to a facility you know will reuse the vials on multiple patients to save money. Second this has happened before in day surgery centers and these drug manufactureres knew that day surgery centers were enticed to reuse the large vials and still sold them. It is like allowing a past DUI offender drive your car where you knew he had a propensity to drink and drive you are also on the hook.
The idea that the drug maker has any liability in this case is absurd. I don't care if they sold vials in a size that could be re-used. It was the syringes that were the cause. So what your trying to say idsm is that if the drug were sold in single dose vials this transfer of disease wouldn't have happened, even if they re-used syringes? When I get a prescription for painkillers they come 30 pills to a bottle. So if I take all 30 at once I can sue the drug company because they didn't give me 30 bottles with 1 pill each? Your arguement has no logic to it and hopefully an appealate judge will see it that way also. Dr. Desai is the only guilty party here but unfortunately he doesn't have deep enough pockets to satiate the blood sucking lawyers.
idsm-Your conclusion is flawed.
Desai's shop was the only one in the country (maybe the world) where this BS went on.
If the mere size of the anesthetic bottle was at fault, why don't we see the crime repeated elsewhere?
The syringes were not re-used on multiple patients they re-used the syringes on the same patient. Dirty syringes did not cause this problem re-using of vials was the cause. You are mistaken about the cause if you actually knew the facts you would understand that dirty syringes did not transfer the virus. Your example makes no sense when you buy a perscription with multiple dosages that YOU take if YOU overuse them then YOU cannot sue someone for that. But if YOU go to a day surgery facility YOU should never be exposed to large vials of propofol by the drug companies and the doctors. They are both to blame here.
idsm- How about a simple answer to a simple question?
Why didn't this happen anywhere else?
First of all the jury are idiots. I hope the drug companies win their appeal. The problem was the dr and nurses. Multi dose vials are used all the times. According to idsm the multi dose vials were the spread of disease. If that were true the whole world would have some sort of disease. It was reuse of needles not vials. I have worked in a dr office and pharmacy and what these idiot dr and nurses did is not common practice.
There you have it folks. This verdict proves the old adage...Jury's are 12 people too stupid to get out of jury duty.
Like many on here have pointed out...If proper sterile technique were used, none of this would have ever happened.
Stupid is, as stupid does and these health care providers were stupid, lazy and cheap. They knew what they were doing was wrong on so many levels. There is no excuse for what they did. They should all be criminally charged and stripped of their medical licenses and NEVER allowed to work in the medical field again.
I hope they all rot in hell.
By idsm: "The syringes were not re-used on multiple patients they re-used the syringes on the same patient." I work in the medical field and universal precautions deems this practice to be illegal. New syringes are to be used regardless of who the patient is and the use of new syringes during each application would have prevented the spread of the virus. In the medical field any syringe that is re-used, or out of its packaging for that matter, is considered "dirty" and, in FACT, did transfer the virus. Don't know where you are getting your "facts" from but all the reports that I have read indicate that syringes were re-used on multiple patients. As you stated, this is a "day clinic". If the patients needed multiple doses of propofol then the clinic didn't know what they were doing in the first place. Competant staff would have administered the correct dosage the first time and the re-using of syringes would have been unneccessary.
The verdict is correct, it's just against the wrong defendant.
It should have been Desai and his cohorts.
Here is a note to all of you who feel this verdict is incorrect -- you are obviously uninformed and lack the intelligence to educate yourself on the facts. I am a family member of one who was infected by a LV clinic...and got to see first hand what a year of treatment can do to a person's livlihood. EVERYONE involved in this horrific conspiracy is guilty as hell....including the billion-dollar drug companies. Read the facts of the case...they were found to be grossly negligent. Profit before patient safety was apparently the Vision Statement of these drug companies -- and they deserve everything that is now coming their way. Justice does prevail in this case.
"Neither company was found strictly liable for defective design; both were found liable for failure to warn and for breach of implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose."
And yet there are punative damages? Somehow I doubt this is going to withstand the appelate phase.
Dr was broke.......... so they went for the deep pocket......... this is what is wrong with this country ....... sue ..... sue ...... sue..... sue
If you think that the LV clinic was the first to dabble in this kind of medical malpractice...google it. Others were infected in the same fashion -- and the same drug companies knew about it back then. Did they change their practice of selling larger-than-needed doses to day clinics? obviously not. Did they warn clinics and Dr's not to use the larger doses -- no. All the drug companies needed to do in order to absolve themselves was to send a simple warning letter. As simple as your parents sending you to school with a field trip permission slip -- that would have been their iron-clad defense and "get out of jail free" card. But....alas....it is more expensive to make and sell single dose vials than the larger vials. Again...profit over safety was the underlying motivation. The large dose vials sold to clinics that had absolutely no reason to have them were literally the first of the many bad dominoes.
XPKB
I'm sorry your family member was infected..but it remains the same..the professionals administering the drug are the culprit. If this has happened once..or a thousand times..the drug companies are not at fault. If you were the owner of a company and had to make a profit to survive, you would sell what was most economical and allow your company to thrive. But you would expect your clients to do the right thing and use your product correctly. So now are we supposed to start suing car companies because they make a car that people speed in and drive like crap and cause accidents. No, it is the person's driving skills, or lack thereof that causes the accident, not that the company made a car that goes too fast. Same principal. You can have your opinion about drug companies, but at the end of the day, most of us still look at the decision as this..sue whoever has the deepest pockets.
kvg2009 - I don't agree with your argument entirely. I do agree that car makers are not responsible for stupid behavior. But I also think that Toyota is responsible for the recent defective issues that have resulted in personal injury. Again - I think the medical "professionals" involved here certainly bear the majority of the blame. My beef with the drug companies in this very specific instance is that they knew full well the dangers involved with providing a product to clinics that had no medical need for that particular version/size of the product. Years earlier...the same thing happened elsewhere - malpractice related infections. I think they were even warned by FDA & CDC. So who is going to force these guys to right-size the products they sell so that there is no chance for other infections? It's not as simple as blindly selling your CONTROLLED substance to any medical clinic and expecting them to do the right thing. This will happen again unless many practices changes....practices involving selling product and practices involving administering that product!
What's next, I can overdose on Tylenol and sue them for putting more than two tablets in a bottle?
Can I sue a beer company because I drove drunk but they sell beer in six packs? 12 packs? 24 packs?
Or if I overdose on NyQuil, then maybe they should just sell it in smaller containers.
Of course I realize this isn't reasonable but I think the point is made. And this is why our medical and insurance costs are so high. As much as the pharmaceuticals may not have made these containers practical to use for single doses, it is still the practitioner's responsibility.
If you we're one of the infected people you might feel different.
Those commentators who demonize the jurors who sat for many days and listened to the evidence from both sides, then were instructed on the law, and then deliberated for two more days, are totally out of line. Don't you know that all your negative comments were fully argued by the lawyers for the defendants? Being ignorant of the evidence in the case and the law that the jurors were given, you don't really have a clue what the truth is in the case. But of course, you probably don't really care what the truth is -- you are like the rock-throwers who are presently rioting in Greece. Maybe you should experience the ravages of Hepatitis-C yourself and then see if you still believe these victims should not be compensated.
jke, your a moron comparing a operation to drinking beer.
gdperson.
It's "you're" and the point wasn't about beer, it was about the container and amount in said container. It obviously went over your head.
While I certainly feel compassion for the affected patients and hope for the best, I just don't see how the manufacturer is liable here. I suppose you keep digging until you find gold. And to be honest, I don't know if I wouldn't do the same. With the doctors claiming bankruptcy there may not be anywhere else to go but after the pharmaceuticals but it just doesn't seem right, when the doctors and practitioners are the ones that did harm.
Desai isn't broke, he just hid his money and property in his wife's name. This was done while our lazy DA waited too long to bust his butt. The whole crew over at that clinic should have to pay. Maybe I should have sued. I had to go through a blood test and the waiting to find out if I was infected from my procedure there. People we better wise up or we're heading for ruin.
One of the most amusing aspects of these blog sites is the ability of nameless anonymous "authors" to spew their venom about things they know nothing about and to attack people without identifying themselves, which prevents us from assessing their personal motives or connections to this story. Unless you were present at this trial, and were aware of what issues were litigated before this case went to trial, and what applicable Nevada law regarding product liability was involved, your opinions are just that...opinions. Don't try to act like authoritative sources on things you know nothing about. Please. By the way, the punitive damages court hearing starts in less than an hour from now. You nameless and faceless "experts" should start sharpening up your meaningless daggers, because it's not going to be pretty.
Lawyers always try to sue those with the deepest pockets, no matter how absurd.
The jury found opposite from the vast majority of people that issue comments on this case (and everyone I have spoken to about this case lawyers and non-lawyers alike). It shows the Defense had its hands tied as to what defenses it could present tot he jury and must have lost every meaningful pre-trial ruling leading up to this verdict. Defending this case without bringing in evidence of the wrongful conduct of the clinics is absurd. It shows how the law in this state excluding comparative fault in product liability cases is unfair and out of touch with the rest of the country.
The reason jurors are instructed not to read newspaper articles or TV comments about a case is because the media reports are often inaccurate or taken out of context. Unless any of you commenters actually sat through the entire trial, you don't know squat and are just spouting your own biases and prejudices. It's easy to call a jury idiotic when it doesn't follow your own preconceived notions of how a case should be decided. However, none of the jurors asked to be on the case and took an oath to decide the case based on the facts and the law, not on politics, or on whether they thought the cost of health care would go up, or anything else. Give your fellow citizens some credit instead of showing how ignorant you are.
Multi dose vials are used on different patients all the time. I am a retired nurse, and I have used multidose vials and never once contaminated the product in the vial or consequently a patient.
The drug company is not at fault. The health care providers and their greed are at fault. The drug company just had money, and the lawyers are the ones that will make out like bandits.
I am sorry that people have Hep C, but let's put the blame where it belongs, on the docs and nurses that did this.
The mentality is someone became ill and by God somebody owes them something. That is why our health care costs so much.