Dan Nowacki needs around-the-clock care after suffering two strokes, one happening days after he was administered doses of Remdesivir for COVID-19 at St. Joseph Mercy Chelsea Hospital in Nov. 2021, according to his attorneys.
At least two doses were part of a voluntary recall for containing glass particulates.
Attorneys for Nowacki said it took several months after the recall for the hospital to confirm with the family that he was treated with the contaminated medication.
“And part of our lawsuit will be to get to the bottom of that delay and find out, once Gilead came forward in the first week of December, why the patients weren’t located,” said Nowacki’s attorney Ven Johnson.
A lawsuit was filed last year against St. Joseph Mercy Chelsea and the drug manufacturer, Gilead, on behalf of Nowacki.
There were questions about whether the lawsuit could even move forward until this month, a Washtenaw County Circuit Court judge ruled that the drug manufacturer wasn’t protected from liability by the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act.
“You didn’t get FDA approval to put glass particulates in this medication,” Johnson said. “You had the medication that was approved, never the glass particulates. So you do not have drug immunity.”
Nowacki and his family shared what life was like before he was treated with the recalled medication.
“I just can’t do the things I used to do before,” said Nowaki’s wife, Kathleen Nowacki.
Local 4 reached out to St. Joseph Mercy Chelsea and Gilead for comment and hasn’t heard back yet.
