A man from Detroit, Michigan was recently forced to cope with the death of his wife when she contracted a meningitis infection from contaminated steroids that were meant to ease her lower back pain. And as if that weren’t painful enough, the widower has now learned that he might have been infected with the exact same thing.
The news comes as meningitis outbreaks have been reported all across the country. The New England Compounding Center provided clinics and doctors with a steroid that was contaminated with fungus. Patients receiving steroid injections for the treatment of lower back pain were thus put at risk of incurring a serious meningitis infection. The injections come into direct with the lining of the spinal cord and brain, and because meningitis causes this lining to become inflamed, the threat was exacerbated.
21 instances have been reported in Michigan alone. In the case of this particular tragedy, the woman was taken to the hospital shortly after she started feeling ill this past August. Meningitis was only detected on September 22, and by September 26, the woman was unresponsive. She died four days later.
Her grieving husband must now wait to see if the back injections he received passed the infection onto him. It’s a lot to deal with on the heels of tragedy, and what’s perhaps even sadder is the fact that there are potentially thousands more people across the country waiting to see if their lives are in danger.
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