NASHVILLE, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- A Tennessee state senator was named in court papers as the physician whose alleged injection of a tainted spinal steroid led to a woman's illness.
In a suit filed in U.S. District Court, attorneys for plaintiff Joan Peay of Nashville names Dr. Steven Dickerson, a Tennessee Senate member, as the one who injected her during a fungal meningitis outbreak in 2012.
Dickerson, an anesthesiologist, is not named as a defendant in the case, but the 31-page complaint says he injected Peay with contaminated methylprednisone acetate.
Sixteen Tennessee patients, and 64 nationwide, died in the outbreak. The suit claims Peay remained ill and under treatment for several months after the injection.
Her suit was one of several filed as a statutory deadline approaches, the (Nashville) Tennessean reported.
Dickerson, a Republican serving his first Senate term, has declined to respond to questions on the case or on his role at the neurological center where the injection occurred, the newspaper added.
