CHARLESTON – A Kentucky woman blames nine drug companies as well as a host of doctors, medical facilities and pharmacies for her son’s opioid overdose.
Inez Lewis of Floyd County, Ky., filed her complaint May 3 in Kanawha Circuit Court. The named defendants are West-Ward Pharmaceuticals Corp., Roxane Laboratories Inc., KVK-Tech Inc., PD-RX Pharmaceuticals Inc., McKesson Corporation, McKesson Medical Surgical Inc., Actavis Elizabeth LLC, Actavis Pharma Inc. and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. John Doe doctors, health care facilities and pharmacies also are included and likely will be named in an amended complaint.
In her complaint, Lewis says her son Timothy Jason Lewis died May 4, 2017, from an opioid overdose after “struggling for years with opioid addiction that was the direct and proximate result of defendants’ negligence.”
She says her son was prescribed Oxycodone and Methadone as early as 2014. She says the opioid analgesics are highly addictive and potentially lethal, adding that the drug company defendants failed to adequately warn of the risk of abuse, addiction, overdose and death.
Lewis says “West Virginia was in an opioid epidemic,” and the drug companies shipped “a massive influx of Schedule II drugs” into the state at the request of the medical defendants and failed to report suspicious order activities to the state Board of Pharmacy and other federal agencies.
She said that led her son to receive numerous prescriptions from the doctors and medical facilities for Oxycodone and Methadone, “none of which were medically necessary.” The pharmacies then filled the prescriptions.
“Mr. Lewis became addicted to opioids,” the complaint states. “Mr. Lewis was no longer able to maintain gainful employment, and his health deteriorated.”
He died May 4, 2017 from multi-drug toxicity caused by an overdose on opioids.
“He was in the construction business,” attorney Kathy A. Brown said of the son. “His mom ended up having to raise his two kids because he was so addicted. It’s a story that is so sad, yet so many families have been wrecked like this because of opioids.”
Brown said many government agencies – states, counties and municipalities – are filing lawsuits against the drug companies. But she said she and partner Timothy Houston of Brown Houston PLLC in Charleston saw that any money collected in those cases would go to the governments.
“What about the individuals?” she said. “What about the people directly affected? We wanted to start bringing these cases on behalf of individuals. We just decided we wanted to represent the people whose families have been wrecked by all of this.”
The six-count complaint accuses the drug companies of strict liability, negligence, failure to warn, negligent infliction of emotional distress and malice. The medical defendants are accused of violating the West Virginia Medical Professional Liability Act and of malice.
As administratrix of her son’s estate, Lewis seeks compensatory damages for expenses for the care and treatment of her son, including medical expenses; non-economic damages for emotional distress; personal injuries suffered by her son prior to his death, including physical pain and suffering as well as mental pain and suffering; past and future lost wages; funeral expenses; sorrow; mental anguish; solace; severe emotional distress; loss of her son’s society, companionship, comfort, guidance, kindly offices and advice; pre- and post-judgment interest; court costs; and attorney fees. She also seeks punitive damages.
The case has been assigned to Kanawha Circuit Judge Tod Kaufman.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 18-C-608