Sixty patients are suing Dallas-based Guardian Pharmacy and two Dallas-area surgery centers that administered the company's compounded solution in 2016 and 2017, WFAA reports.
What you should know:
1. The lawsuits allege Guardian's solution caused vision damage within weeks after it was injected during procedures at Medical City Surgery Park Central, formerly Park Central Surgical Center, and Key-Whitman Eye Center. A Key-Whitman Eye Center spokesperson declined to comment on the pending litigation. Becker's ASC Review was unable to reach a Park Central representative at the time of publication.
2. In May 2017, Park Central Surgical Center Administrator Rick Coffman, RN, signed a letter republished by Van Wey Law, which informed patients that some had developed vision impairment after undergoing cataract surgery at the ASC.
"We now believe the underlying cause of this issue may be an antibiotic medication used during surgery. The medication was prepared by an FDA-inspected laboratory here in Dallas and provided to Park Central Surgical Center," the letter said.
3. Van Wey Law identified the solution in question as triamcinolone/moxifloxacin. The law firm is representing cataract patients who reported eye injuries.
4. Jeffrey Whitman, MD, previously told WFAA, "The medication was not made to specifications and that is what most likely affected the retina."
5. Guardian voluntarily stopped compounding the drug. However, Guardian Pharmacy President Jack Munn said in a statement to WFAA, "No scientific connection has been established by any entity between the drug Guardian Pharmacy Services compounded and the illnesses that have been reported."
Note: There are two separate, unaffiliated companies named Guardian Pharmacy Services. This article refers exclusively to the one headquartered in Dallas. The other is based in Atlanta and recently acquired Guardian Pharmacy of Dallas-Fort Worth in Arlington, also not affiliated with the pharmacy referenced in this article.