The head pharmacist of the New England Compounding Center — the Framingham-based pharmacy that triggered a deadly 2012 meningitis outbreak that killed dozens of people and sickened hundreds of others — was sentenced yesterday to eight years behind bars, a punishment that victims say is not enough.
Glenn Chin, NECC’s former supervisory pharmacist at NECC, sobbed as he told victims gathered in federal court in Boston that he would never forgive himself for his role in the outbreak that led to nearly 80 deaths, the sickening of 800 people, and was considered the worst public health crisis in recent U.S. history.
“I cannot fathom what all of you are going through,” Chin said. “This is something that should have never happened, and I am sorry that you and your families had to go through this.”
Chin was convicted last year of racketeering and mail fraud, but was acquitted on second-degree murder charges. His boss, Barry Cadden, was sentenced to nine years in prison for similar charges. Chin’s lawyer argued the pharmacist was unable to stand up to his boss, and was not ultimately to blame for the distribution of the deadly drugs.
Prosecutors had asked for 35 years, while Chin’s attorney asked for just over three.
Chin was in charge of the compounding pharmacy’s “clean room” where the drugs were made. That was the room where steroid injections made and sold by NECC were contaminated with mold. The pharmacy didn’t do standard tests and falsified drug information to cover up the use of expired materials, prosecutors have said.
“Mr. Chin, you had the opportunity to be the hero in this situation. You could have done what was right, discarded the contaminated solutions,” said Mary Beth Krakowski — whose aunt, Alice Machowiak, died after receiving a tainted injection — while speaking to the court. “How could you have fallen so far to become uncaring, cold and callous enough to put the patients’ welfare behind your personal gain?”
Willard Mazure, who spent more than 100 days in the hospital and underwent four surgeries during which he said doctors literally scrubbed black mold off of his spine, said he spent much of his hospital stay in the company of other people who were sickened by the same drugs — 11 of whom died from fungal meningitis.
“I’m stammering, my wife had to quit her job to take care of me,” Mazure said. “I’m still being treated, I’m still positive for fungus at this time.”
Mazure said Chin’s eight-year prison term didn’t reflect the lasting damage he dealt to hundreds of innocent people and their families.
“We’ve got 80 people dead, and nobody’s responsible,” Mazure said. “(Eight) years just doesn’t seem like enough.”
from Health - Google News http://ift.tt/2s1efvG
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