Posted at 9:30 p.m. PDT Friday, June 22, 2001

Bad batch of cortisone causes third death, doctors believe

BY GUY ASHLEY Knight Ridder Newspapers

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.--A Walnut Creek woman who died of bacterial meningitis on Thursday became the third person whose death has been linked to contaminated cortisone compounded by a local pharmacist.

Lola Wright, 82, spent 20 days under close observation at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, where she was rushed by ambulance on June 2 with a soaring fever. Contra Costa health officials later linked her illness to a cortisone injection she received in her spine on May 29.

It is believed the injection came from a batch of betamethasone that health officials say was contaminated with serratia bacteria when it was compounded at Doc's Pharmacy in Walnut Creek on May 17.

``She was part of the original group of patients who have been under our watch since the contamination was discovered,'' said Julie Freestone, a spokesperson for the public health division of Contra Costa Health Services. ``Her death is of course a tragedy, but to us it does not represent an expansion of this outbreak of infection.''

Wright, who leaves a husband, two children and nine grandchildren, died about 7 p.m. Thursday at John Muir. She lived with her husband of 62 years, Winston. Wright was at one timea a registered nurse. She had also run a home-building business, and a bed and breakfast with her husband.

``She was a very special, loving woman,'' said her daughter, Ann Johnson of Walnut Creek. ``She made a lot of difference in many people's lives.''

A private funeral will be held today.

Hospital spokeswoman Laura Kaufman said Wright was one of 22 patients who received injections at the Sierra SurgiCenter in Walnut Creek late last month. They have been under close watch because of fears they were exposed to the contaminated steroid.

Wright lived in Walnut Creek with her husband of 62 years, Winston. In her lifetime, she had been a registered nurse and had run a home-building business, and a bed and breakfast with her husband.

``She was a very special, loving woman,'' said her daughter, Ann Johnson of Walnut Creek. ``She made a lot of difference in many people's lives.''

A private funeral will be held today.

Suspicions about the medicine grew after a 47-year-old Concord man, George Stahl, died less than a day after receiving an epidural cortisone shot on May 29 to relieve back pain. A second man who received a cortisone injection on May 31 also died earlier this month. His name was not released.

Health officials responded to the outbreak by seizing unopened vials of the injectable steroid from the SurgiCenter and two other medical facilities in Contra Costa. The vials came from a 300-milliliter batch of medicine compounded by a pharmacy technician at Doc's, according to Dr. Wendel Brunner, Contra Costa's director of public health. At least 12 vials of the seized medication were found to be contaminated with serratia bacteria. Brunner said.

In all, 13 people who received injections at the SurgiCenter were hospitalized. Five of those patients were confirmed to have contracted meningitis, including the three who died. No illnesses have been reported in connection with medication shipped to the two other facilities.

Brunner said the illnesses are not contagious and that only people who received injections from the contaminated medication were at risk.

He attributed the contamination to inadequate sterilization techniques employed at Doc's when the medication was prepared in a rear room at business. Suspicions about the cortisone's preparation have prompted the California Board of Pharmacy and the federal Food and Drug Administration to join the investigation into the outbreak of infections.

The owner of Doc's, compounding specialist Robert Horwitz, had little to say when informed of the third death on Friday. ``I have not received any information from the health department, so I really can't respond.''

http://www0.mercurycenter.com/breaking/docs/007552.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), June 23, 2001

Answers

And see earlier thread at:

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=005TLI

-- Andre Weltman (aweltman@state.pa.us), June 25, 2001.