TB Andy To Be Sued By 8 Fellow Plane Passengers Over TB Exposure
Jodi at Webloggin on Jul 13 2007 at 4:57 pm | Filed under: Health and Science
Looks like Andrew Speaker, also known as “TB Andy”, ticked off a few of his fellow plane passengers when he decided to fly on a commercial flight and expose them to a highly antibiotic resistant strain of TB, also called XDR. It is also being reported that his strain has been downgraded to MDR.
Eight or Nine Passengers have signed onto a 1.3 million dollar lawsuit and I hope they get every penny and then some. I say eight or nine because both numbers are being reported.
MONTREAL - Eight fellow passengers of a tuberculosis-infected man are suing him for $1.3 million as a result of their possible exposure to the disease on a commercial flight from Prague to Montreal in late May.
Montreal lawyer Anlac Nguyen filed the motion Thursday in Quebec Superior Court on behalf of seven Canadians and two natives of the Czech Republic. The ninth plaintiff is a brother and roommate of a passenger.
Eight of the individuals named in the suit were on the same flight as Andrew Speaker, a 31-year-old Atlanta attorney who was in Europe when he learned tests showed he had not just TB, but an extremely drug-resistant strain known as XDR.
Despite warnings from health officials not to board another long flight, Speaker took the Czech Airlines flight to Montreal as part of his return trip home. He subsequently became the first American quarantined by the federal government since 1963, and is currently undergoing treatment under isolation in a Denver hospital.
XDR, tuberculosis, Anlac Nguyen, Andrew Speaker
Mr. Nguyen should increase the amount of the lawsuit up to, say, $10 million, in order to set legal precedent and to encourage more contacted airline passengers to get tested for the disease. Make an example of this guy.
Criminally, Speaker should do jail time. There is a similar TB-infected man who was jailed for not following doctor’s orders.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-11-tuberculosis-threat_N.htm#uslPageReturn
The difference between the 2 cases…money.
Also criminally, there is legal precedent for individuals who attempt/recklessly to infect others with HIV…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_transmission_of_HIV
Both of theses should be applied to Andrew Speaker’s actions…
Agreed. This was a case of selfish and reckless acts that resulted in many people living in fear for their health under the potential of having contracted a life threatening communicable disease.