INDIANAPOLIS -
The family of a northern Indiana man who died from fungal meningitis is suing a Massachusetts specialty pharmacy that produced tainted medication linked to a deadly outbreak.
The wrongful death lawsuit was filed this week in an Elkhart County court.
Sixty-eight-year-old Daniel Rohrer of Bristol died Oct. 23 at an Elkhart hospital. Attorney Richard Crowder says Rohrer's death was the third in Indiana attributed to the widespread fungal meningitis outbreak that's claimed 29 lives.
The family's complaint accuses the New England Compounding Center of Framingham, Mass., of negligence and says the pharmacy should have known the tainted steroid was harmful.
Elkhart County's health officer has said all three of Indiana's fungal meningitis deaths are linked to Elkhart County, which is east of South Bend and borders Michigan.
Meantime, a northern Indiana teenager who returned to school this week following a bout with fungal meningitis linked to tainted medication is facing a long recovery from the illness.
Sixteen-year-old Karissa Klemm resumed classes Wednesday at Northridge High School in Middlebury. But she didn't make it through the entire school day because the medications she now takes leave her woozy and prone to exhaustion.
She must take antifungal medications twice a day for at least the next three months.
Klemm tells The Elkhart Truth she initially thought she had the flu when she became sick with the rare illness.
She injured her back three years ago jumping on a trampoline. Klemm received injections of a tainted back pain medication in September for swelling of a herniated disc.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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