A girl in Florida filed a lawsuit late Thursday towards the maker of EzriCare synthetic tears and Walmart after struggling a bacterial infection that she stated was brought on by the eyedrops.
Houston-based Lange Legislation Agency, which is representing the girl, Teresa Phillips, 60, of Bradford County, stated the lawsuit is the primary nationwide over accidents associated to eyedrops linked to a drug-resistant bacterial an infection known as Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
The lawsuit was filed within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Center District of Florida.
Based on the lawsuit, Phillips bought EzriCare synthetic tears within the weeks earlier than her an infection.
In Could, Phillips stated she felt “itchy” and had “unrelenting ache in her eyes.” She underwent a spherical of antibiotics, in response to the swimsuit, however after per week “it turned obvious that the antibiotics weren’t working to cease the an infection.”
Phillips needed to have surgical procedure to treatment among the points associated to the an infection and nonetheless has signs, in response to the agency.
The EzriCare synthetic tears have been linked to not less than 56 instances of bacterial an infection in 12 states. 5 of these individuals thus far have had imaginative and prescient loss. One particular person died when the micro organism entered the bloodstream. Docs say there may be more cases.
The maker of the eyedrops, World Pharma Healthcare, introduced on Feb. 2 that it was voluntarily recalling the product due to attainable contamination.
Whereas the eyedrops haven’t but definitively been traced to the infections, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention and the Meals and Drug Administration say they’re at present working with state and native well being officers to analyze the outbreak. In an alert introduced final week, the CDC said it had collected specimens from Could 2022 to January.
World Pharma and Walmart didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark concerning the lawsuit.
The FDA first realized concerning the Pseudomonas aeruginosa outbreak in December and found the hyperlink to the EzriCare drops in January, in response to FDA spokesperson Audra Harrison.
The EzriCare drops will not be FDA-approved merchandise, the company stated, and are legally marketed underneath a regulatory pathway that enables the sale of over-the-counter merchandise that meet sure necessities. The FDA doesn’t pre-review or approve these sorts of merchandise, the company stated.
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Erika Edwards contributed.
