Windsor cancer patient unhappy with class-action lawsuit offer
Cancer patients who received diluted chemotherapy drugs several years ago have until Wednesday to oppose a recently awarded settlement offer from a class-action lawsuit.
About 1,200 patients in the Ontario cities of Windsor, London as well as patients in New Brunswick were given lower than intended doses of cyclophosphamide and gemcitabine during treatments in 2012.
Last month, they were granted a settlement that amounts to about $1,500 each.
Sarah Johnson of Windsor wants to fight that in court. The single mother of three was already on diluted chemotherapy because she was seven months pregnant.
The mistake in her treatment made her dosage even lower.
"They could save a lot using the diluted dosage, so if it was OK, and it was OK for all of us to get that, why isn't everybody else getting it still?" she said. "I don't understand that. We have a lot of questions, and I think that our best way to get answers is to be able to go to court and see what their defence is."
Johnson now has stage-four terminal cancer. She is one of 290 people given the diluted drug. About 24 per cent of the 1,200 patients have since died.
