$104 Million Verdict for Air Force Veteran Who Contracted Hepatitis C from Reused Propofol Vials

In July 2007, Michael Washington, a retired U.S. Air Force technical sergeant, underwent a routine colonoscopy at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas. Weeks later he learned he had contracted hepatitis C. The source was a reused vial of propofol, the intravenous anesthetic used to sedate patients during the procedure.

The infection traced back to a systemic problem. Teva Parenteral Medicines and Baxter Healthcare sold propofol in 50 mL and 100 mL multi-dose vials to outpatient endoscopy clinics where individual patients typically needed only 10 to 20 mL per procedure. Clinic staff re-entered the vials for successive patients. Both companies knew this reuse practice was common and understood that re-entering a vial with a used needle could contaminate the remaining drug with blood-borne pathogens. Neither company added single-use warnings or changed their packaging.

The Las Vegas hepatitis C outbreak tied to Dr. Dipak Desai's clinics ultimately prompted health officials to advise roughly 50,000 patients to get tested. Multiple civil trials followed. Richard Friedman of Friedman Rubin tried the Washington case in Clark County District Court, arguing that the drug manufacturers, not just the clinic staff, bore responsibility for the outbreak by designing their product distribution in a way that made unsafe reuse predictable.

On October 10, 2011, the jury returned a verdict of $14 million in compensatory damages for Michael and Josephine Washington. Two days later, on October 12, 2011, the jury added $90 million in punitive damages, assigning $60 million to Teva and $30 million to Baxter, for a combined total of $104 million. After the verdict, Friedman noted that three separate juries had now rejected the argument that clinic personnel alone caused the outbreak.

The verdict was one of several large jury awards in the propofol litigation. Teva later entered a broad settlement covering approximately 120 lawsuits, resolving the pending appeals. The terms of the Washington settlement were not publicly disclosed.