Opioid Justice Team: mother and grandfather of children born opioid dependent appointed to Purdue Phrma creditors committee

Among four individuals appointed to the official committee of unsecured creditors finalized by the U.S. Trustee regarding the $10 billion Purdue Pharma LP bankruptcy filing will be a mother and grandfather of children born opioid dependent and represented by the legal-medical partnership known as the Opioid Justice Team.

“This finally represents a recognition of the hundreds of thousands of children who are exposed to opioids in the mother’s womb and who upon birth require immediate intervention, as well as life-long medical monitoring and services,” said Attorney Scott Bickford, one of several attorneys representing these children in more than 35 class actions filed in states across the U.S.

Others appointed to the nine-representative committee during a recent meeting in New York are Blue Cross & Blue Shield Association, CVC caremark, LTS Lohmann, West Boca Medical Center, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and two additional personal injury victims.

Mr. Bickford immediately moved to file a friend of the court legal brief in the U.S. Sixth District Appellate court supporting the State of Ohio’s position that municipalities trying to siphon off money from the Purdue bankruptcy settlement lack the legal ability to ask for those damages.    

Said Co-Counsel Celeste Brustowicz, “This is the first definitive sign that the fight we have waged on behalf of the innocent victims caught up in the prescription opioid crisis may finally get the medical trust fund we have advocated for.”

The Opioid Justice Team estimates that every 15 to 19 minutes in the U.S., a baby is born already dependent on opioids due to the mother’s in-vitro exposure. For more information on this condition known as Neo-Natal Abstinence Syndrome, go to www.opioidjusticeteam.com