Similac Bacterial Contamination Caused Infant Brain Infection, Lawsuit Claims

Abbott Laboratories faces a lawsuit that alleges recent Similac bacterial contamination caused a Nevada infant to develop a serious brain infection after being fed the recalled formula.

The complaint (PDF) was brought last week by Felicia Cox and Raemel Henry, on behalf of themselves and their minor child, identified only with the initials N.H.

The lawsuit comes weeks after the infant formula manufacturer issued a massive recall for Similac, Alimentum and EleCare products made at a Michigan manufacturing facility, which have been found to contain bacterial contamination with Salmonella Newport and Cronobacter sakazakii, which has caused infants nationwide to suffer side effects.

Within days after the recall was first announced in February, reports began to surface that suggested the company knew about the Similac contamination problems at its facility since at least September 2021, when the Minnesota Department of Health began investigating a case involving an infant infected with Cronobacter.

Since then, parents throughout the U.S. have been filing class action lawsuits and individual claims over injuries caused by the Similac bacterial contamination, indicating that Abbott ignored industry safety standards and best practices, endangering infants for the sake of profit.

In this latest complaint, Cox and Henry indicate their baby was regularly fed recalled Similac powdered formula products, and fell ill due to a bacterial infection that migrated to her brain, resulting in prolonged hospitalization. As a result of the infection, the inant has suffered fine and gross motor delays which persist to this day.

“Plaintiff is now afraid to use Abbott’s Recalled Product because of the health dangers described in Abbott’s recall,” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiff would not have purchased Abbott’s Recalled Product if they had known it was defective and contaminated.”

The lawsuit presents claims of negligence, strict product liability, breach of warranty, and unjust enrichment. The plaintiffs are seeking both compensatory and punitive damages.

Similac Lawsuits Against Abbott

The recall lawsuit come as Abbott already faces dozens of baby formula lawsuits brought by parents of premature infants who developed a devastating gastrointestinal condition, known as necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), alleging that the manufacturer has withheld information for decades about the risks associated with Similac and other cow’s milk formula.

The Similac NEC lawsuits allege that Abbott placed its desire for profits before the health and safety of newborn babies, by filing to warn about the risks associated with using their formula among premature and low birth weight infants. Similar allegations have also been presented in Enfamil lawsuits filed against Mead Johnson, which sells similar cow’s milk-based infant formula products that have been linked to cases of NEC.

Given similar questions of fact and law presented in these claims, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) decided to centralize the NEC lawsuits over Similac and Enfamil earlier this month, transferring the litigation to U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer in the Northern District of Illinois for pretrial proceedings.

A separate motion has been filed to centralize all Similac bacterial contamination lawsuits filed as a result of the recent recall, which the JPML is likely to consider sometime this summer.