‘The surgery was terrifying:’ South Florida kids ended up with infections after routine doctor’s visit

Vaccinations are a rite of passage for children — not the most pleasant experience, but a little needle prick can provide decades of protection against disease.

But now dozens of parents and patients in South Florida allege in a lawsuit that needles used to deliver that protection also brought on some horrible infections.

The patients got infected after getting their shots back in the summer of 2021.

They blame their pediatrician and the distributor of hypodermic needles, but that company blames the doctor.

While the vaccines are safe and effective, it’s clear something went wrong. The lawsuit claims more than 50 children are paying the price.

They ranged in age from one month old to late teens when they went for vaccinations to a pediatrician, Dr. Esther Marin-Casariego, in her offices in the 8700 block of Kendall Drive.

Within weeks, they ended up with puss, redness, and soreness at the sites of their injections. Testing would confirm they were infected with mycobacterium abscessus. As it sounds, it’s bacteria that can cause abscesses

Cuervo’s attorney

For Ailyn and Arnold Cuervo’s one-year-old daughter, it required surgery.

“The amount of puss and blood was just gushing out and she was screaming,” recalled Arnold. “It was terrible, terrible.”

Ailyn, an employee of NBC6, said the ordeal was harrowing, for her child and the parents.

“The surgery was terrifying,” she said. “I mean it’s a one-year-old going under general anesthesia.”

They had no idea what caused the infections but were sure it was not the vaccines.

“They were all different ages,” Arnold said of those patients infected. “They were different vaccines. The only common denominator is the needle and, of course, the doctor’s office who got those needles.”

Dr. Marin-Casariego is being sued on behalf of the Cuervos’ daughter and a dozen other patients.

As is McKesson Medical-Surgical Inc., the company that distributed the needles, which they and the Food and Drug Administration say were manufactured by others in China.

One of the patients’ attorneys, Judd Rosen, said their investigation so far has found “over 50 children infected with mycobacterium abscessus.” Asked what they had in common, he replied, “Well, they all went to the same doctor, and they were all given shots with the same McKesson needles.”

While the patients accuse both the doctor and McKesson, those two are blaming each other in court filings.

McKesson’s attorney shared notes from a state health investigator he obtained during a deposition suggesting splashing of water from the sink onto medical supplies “likely contributed” to the spread of bacteria.

Marin-Casariego is suing McKesson, alleging its “contaminated” needles were “defective.”

NBC6 Investigators shared the notes with the Florida Department of Health and asked about the findings of their investigation, but they did not provide a response.

Two years after her daughter was infected, Ailyn Cuervo says the girl, now 3, “is terrified. She freaks out the minute the needle comes out. She just runs.”

And the parents are worried, as well.

“I just feel like now any time she gets sick with anything, we always refer back to the doctor and say, ‘Could this be a long-term effect of something … that the needle caused?’”

That’s one reason they and others whose children were harmed want someone held accountable.

“All this pain and suffering that’s been caused,” Cuervo said. “A baby can’t go through surgery and it’s no one’s fault. Everybody pointing the finger at each other. It’s not fair. It’s not justice.”

Kimberly Cook, Marin-Casariego’s attorney, said the doctor “denied all responsibility” for the infections, adding: “As soon as she first noticed a reaction, she began to investigate and determined that the only common factor …. was the needles she used.”

An attorney for McKesson, Spencer Silverglate, pointing to the state health department’s notes, says that it’s likely bacteria in the water in Casariego’s office is to blame.

In their defense, Silverglate noted that with millions of needles distributed, “no other purchaser of McKesson branded hypodermic needles reported an outbreak of infections.”

The outbreak at Marin-Casariego’s office is the only one the NBC6 Investigators found involving that bacteria and McKesson needles reported in a federal database.

As it stands now, all this could be sorted out in a trial set to begin next year.