HOWELL, Mich. (AP) — Days after a routine injection to ease back pain, Donna Kruzich and a friend drove across the border to Canada in 2012 to see end-of-summer theater in Stratford, Ontario.
The 78-year-old Michigan woman suddenly became ill and returned home. By early October, she was dead.
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HOWELL, Mich. (AP) — Days after a routine injection to ease back pain, Donna Kruzich and a friend drove across the border to Canada in 2012 to see end-of-summer theater in Stratford, Ontario.
Michael Kruzich looks over his late mother's autopsy results Monday, April 15, 2024, in Lansing, Mich. Donna Kruzich was one of dozens of people in the U.S. who died after being injected with tainted steroids made by a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts. Now, more than a decade later, the operator of the New England Compounding Center is returning to a Michigan court to be sentenced on involuntary manslaughter charges. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)
Michael Kruzich looks at a photo of his late mother Donna, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Lansing, Mich. Donna Kruzich was one of dozens of people in the U.S. who died after being injected with tainted steroids made by a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts. Now, more than a decade later, the operator of the New England Compounding Center is returning to a Michigan court to be sentenced on involuntary manslaughter charges. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)
Brothers Steve Kruzich, left, and Michael Kruzich look at a photo of their late mother Donna, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Lansing, Mich. Donna Kruzich was one of dozens of people in the U.S. who died after being injected with tainted steroids made by a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts. Now, more than a decade later, the operator of the New England Compounding Center is returning to a Michigan court to be sentenced on involuntary manslaughter charges. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)
Michael Kruzich holds a photo of his late mother Donna during an interview Monday, April 15, 2024, in Lansing, Mich. Donna Kruzich was one of dozens of people in the U.S. who died after being injected with tainted steroids made by a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts. Now, more than a decade later, the operator of the New England Compounding Center is returning to a Michigan court to be sentenced on involuntary manslaughter charges. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)
“Most of the time she could not communicate with us. She was basically in a coma,” son Michael Kruzich recalled. “We knew she had meningitis — but we didn't know how she got it."
Evidence soon emerged: Donna Kruzich was one of at least 64 people in the U.S. who died because of tainted steroids made by a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts. Nearly 12 years later, the operator of New England Compounding Center is returning to a Michigan court Thursday for his sentence for involuntary manslaughter.
Barry Cadden already is serving a 14 1/2-year sentence for federal crimes related to the extraordinary outbreak of fungal infections, which was traced to dirty conditions inside the lab and caused meningitis and other debilitating illnesses. More than 700 people in 20 states were sickened, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Michigan is the only state that charged Cadden and a key employee, pharmacist Glenn Chin, in any deaths.
Cadden, 57, recently pleaded no contest to 11 counts of involuntary manslaughter in a deal that took second-degree murder charges off the table. Prosecutors also agreed to a minimum prison term of 10 years, which will run at the same time as the federal sentence.
That means he is unlikely to face additional time in custody, an outcome that disappoints Michael Kruzich.
"My mother is gone, and Cadden and Chin are responsible. My family would like to see Cadden go to trial. It feels like they’ve run out the clock and they just want it to be done,” he said, referring to state prosecutors.
Attorney General Dana Nessel said most of the 11 families supported the plea agreement.
“We've ensured that this plea fits their desire for closure and justice,” she said in a written statement on March 5.
Cadden's attorney, Gerald Gleeson II, declined to comment ahead of the sentencing. In federal court in Boston in 2017, Cadden said he was sorry for the “whole range of suffering” that occurred.
Chin has not reached a similar plea deal, court filings show, and his trial on 11 second-degree murder charges is pending in the same Livingston County court, 60 miles (96.5 kilometers) northwest of Detroit. Separately, he is serving a 10 1/2-year federal sentence.
New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Massachusetts, operated in a little-known but vital corner of the U.S. health care system. Compounding pharmacies make versions of medications that often aren't available through larger drugmakers.
Children, for example, might need a customized dose that is different than what's common for adults.
“They're very important,” said Eric Kastango, a pharmacist and industry expert who testified for prosecutors in Cadden's federal trial. “I don't think the general public is necessarily aware what pharmacists do. They know they go into a hospital and they might need an IV. They might not know who made it or how they made it.”
In 2012, New England Compounding was shipping pain-relieving steroids to doctors across the U.S., including a clinic in Brighton, Michigan, where Donna Kruzich and others received treatment. But the lab was a mess, leading to the growth of mold in the manufacturing process.
“The environment quickly spiraled out of control,” Michigan prosecutors said in a court filing last June.
Investigators “uncovered a company placing profits over human lives. Barry Cadden was the ‘big boss’ at NECC who made many of the company's important decisions," the state said. “He cut corners on safety.”
Crime victims can speak in court in Michigan. Michael Kruzich, 70, said he doesn't plan to attend Thursday, although he submitted a poem on his family's behalf.
He told The Associated Press that his mother was a “healthy, happy woman” who loved to travel and was treasurer of her golf league in the Ann Arbor area.
“I was told 12 years ago, that you cannot harm someone more than killing them,” Kruzich said in his poem. "I’ve come to disagree — you can harm them more, when justice fails them."
Associated Press researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed to this story.
Follow Ed White at https://twitter.com/edwritez
Michael Kruzich holds a photo of his late mother Donna during an interview Monday, April 15, 2024, in Lansing, Mich. Donna Kruzich was one of dozens of people in the U.S. who died after being injected with tainted steroids made by a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts. Now, more than a decade later, the operator of the New England Compounding Center is returning to a Michigan court to be sentenced on involuntary manslaughter charges. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)
Michael Kruzich looks over his late mother's autopsy results Monday, April 15, 2024, in Lansing, Mich. Donna Kruzich was one of dozens of people in the U.S. who died after being injected with tainted steroids made by a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts. Now, more than a decade later, the operator of the New England Compounding Center is returning to a Michigan court to be sentenced on involuntary manslaughter charges. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)
Michael Kruzich looks at a photo of his late mother Donna, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Lansing, Mich. Donna Kruzich was one of dozens of people in the U.S. who died after being injected with tainted steroids made by a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts. Now, more than a decade later, the operator of the New England Compounding Center is returning to a Michigan court to be sentenced on involuntary manslaughter charges. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)
Brothers Steve Kruzich, left, and Michael Kruzich look at a photo of their late mother Donna, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Lansing, Mich. Donna Kruzich was one of dozens of people in the U.S. who died after being injected with tainted steroids made by a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts. Now, more than a decade later, the operator of the New England Compounding Center is returning to a Michigan court to be sentenced on involuntary manslaughter charges. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)
Michael Kruzich holds a photo of his late mother Donna during an interview Monday, April 15, 2024, in Lansing, Mich. Donna Kruzich was one of dozens of people in the U.S. who died after being injected with tainted steroids made by a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts. Now, more than a decade later, the operator of the New England Compounding Center is returning to a Michigan court to be sentenced on involuntary manslaughter charges. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday to launch an offensive in Rafah in southern Gaza despite calls for restraint. He said Israel will destroy Hamas’ battalions there “with or without a deal” currently being discussed in talks in Cairo.
Israel and Hamas are negotiating a cease-fire agreement meant to free hostages and bring some relief to the Palestinians in the besieged enclave.
“The idea that we will stop the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the questions. We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate Hamas’ battalions there — with or without a deal, to achieve the total victory,” Netanyahu said in a meeting with families of hostages held by militants in Gaza.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to visit Israel on his latest trip to the region, which began Monday in Saudi Arabia. He said Israel needs to do more to allow aid to enter Gaza, but that the best way to alleviate the humanitarian crisis is for the two sides to agree to a cease-fire.
The Israel-Hamas war was sparked by the unprecedented Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. Israel says the militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials. The war has driven around 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes, caused vast destruction in several towns and cities, and pushed northern Gaza to the brink of famine.
Currently:
— Ahead of visit to Israel, Blinken presses Hamas to accept the new cease-fire proposal.
— U.S. military ships are helping build a pier for Gaza aid. It’s going to cost at least $320 million.
— The top United Nations court is set to rule on Nicaragua’s request for Germany to halt aid to Israel.
— Student protests over the war in Gaza roil U.S. campuses ahead of graduations.
— A missile attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels damages a ship in the Red Sea.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Here's the latest:
GENEVA — The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinians said Tuesday that it has raised over $115 million in private donations since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted more than six months ago, praising a welcome infusion after a string of well-heeled Western governments suspended their funding.
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, made the comments after a closed-door briefing with diplomats from U.N. member states in Geneva. He said that most donor countries who paused their contributions in the wake of allegations from Israel that some staffers were connected to the militant group Hamas had since restarted their aid outlays.
Three countries — the United States, Austria and Britain — have not resumed funding, he said. The United States, its biggest funder, has “clearly indicated that it will keep the freeze until March 2025,” while Austria and Britain haven’t yet decided, Lazzarini said.
He said $267 million that had previously committed was still on hold, “the bulk of it” from the United States.
On Friday, the U.N. said its investigators are looking into allegations against 14 of the 19 UNRWA staffers who Israel claims were involved in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants that spurred the latest war in Gaza.
In January, the world body was informed of Israeli allegations that 12 employees of the agency known as UNRWA had taken part in the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, when Hamas and other Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people and seized some 250 as hostages. Seven other cases have since emerged.
Israel’s allegations led to the suspension of contributions to UNRWA by the U.S. and more than a dozen other countries, leading to a pause of funding worth about $450 million, according to a U.N.-commissioned report released last week.
UNRWA has 32,000 staff in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Palestinian territories, including 13,000 in Gaza who provide education, health care, food and other services to several million Palestinians and their families.
AMMAN, Jordan — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Jordan on the second leg of his latest Mideast diplomatic mission to boost aid shipments to Gaza and champion a new proposal for an Israel-Hamas cease-fire that would include the release of hostages held by the militant group.
A day after saying in Saudi Arabia that Israel still needs to do more to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza, and that Israel’s latest cease-fire offer was “extraordinarily generous” to Hamas, Blinken was meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi in Amman. Their talks were expected to focus on those issues as well as planning for post-conflict reconstruction and governance of Gaza.
Blinken will then tour several aid facilities and meet the U.N. humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, before leaving for Israel. Blinken will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet in Tel Aviv on Wednesday as well as visit Gaza-aid related sites.
On Monday in Riyadh, Blinken also reiterated the Biden administration’s opposition to Israel mounting a major military operation against the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have fled to escape fighting farther north. Blinken said Israel has still not presented a credible plan to protect civilians if it goes ahead with such an offensive.
Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel would proceed with a Rafah operation “with or without” a cease-fire for hostages deal.
JERUSALEM — An Israeli police officer has been moderately injured in a stabbing attack outside of Jerusalem’s Old City, police said.
Police say the attacker, a Turskih national, was killed by police on the scene.
Tensions have been surging in the region since the Israel-Hamas war broke out Oct. 7 when the militant group launched a cross-border raid into Israel, killing 1,200 people while another 250 were taken hostage.
Tuesday’s attack took place in east Jerusalem, which has a large Palestinian population and where tensions between them and Israeli police often flare.
Stabbing attacks, car rammings and shooting incidents against Israelis have increased, mostly in the occupied West Bank but also in Israeli cities and towns, since the start of the war in Gaza.
BEIRUT — At least eight children have been killed and 75 injured in Lebanon in the ongoing conflict along the country’s border with Israel, UNICEF said Monday.
Out of 90,000 people displaced by the conflict in south Lebanon, 30,000 are children, UNICEF said in a report. It said that 20,000 students have been impacted by the partial or total closure of 72 schools in the conflict zone.
Children in Lebanon have also suffered as a result of disruptions to services including health care and water and are struggling with mental health issues because of the violence, the report said.
More than 350 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon over nearly seven months of near-daily cross-border fighting between the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces. The conflict escalated after the Israel-Hamas war erupted on Oct. 7.
Most of those killed were fighters with Hezbollah and allied groups, but more than 50 civilians have also been killed. In addition to eight children, 21 women were killed in the first six months of fighting, UNICEF reported. On the Israeli side, strikes from Lebanon have killed at least 10 civilians and 12 soldiers.
Western diplomats have brought forward a series of proposals for a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah but have so far failed to broker a deal. Hezbollah has said there will be no truce in Lebanon before there is a cease-fire in Gaza. Israeli officials, meanwhile, have said that a Gaza cease-fire does not automatically mean it will halt its strikes in Lebanon, even if Hezbollah does so.
CAIRO — The Gaza Health Ministry said Tuesday the bodies of 47 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours. Hospitals also received 61 wounded, it said in its daily report.
That brings the overall Palestinian death toll from the Israel-Hamas war to at least 34,536, the ministry said. Another 77,704 have been wounded, it said.
The Health Ministry does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its tallies, but says that women and children make up around two thirds of those killed.
The Israeli military says it has killed roughly 13,000 militants during the war, without providing evidence to back up the claim.
CAIRO — Officials from Hamas have left Cairo after talks with Egyptian officials on a new cease-fire proposal in Gaza, Egypt’s state-owned Al-Qahera News satellite channel said Tuesday.
The channel, which has close ties with Egyptian security agencies, said a Hamas delegation will return to Cairo with a written response to the cease-fire proposal, without saying when.
The delegation, chaired by senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya, held talks with Egyptian officials Monday that focused on an Egyptian-crafted proposal to establish a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.
Along with Qatar and the United States, Egypt is mediating between Israel and Hamas to secure a truce after nearly seven months of war. In recent weeks, Egypt has stepped up mediation efforts in hopes of averting an assault on Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city on the border with Egypt where more than half of Gaza’s population is sheltering.
The terms of the draft deal were not made public. But Israeli media said Israel softened its position, now seeking the release of 33 hostages — down from 40 — in return for the release of some 900 Palestinian prisoners. Hamas is believed to hold around 100 Israelis in Gaza and the remains of at least 30 more.
Mourners carry the bodies of members of the Abu Taha family who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, during their funeral at Al-Salam cemetery, east of Rafah, Gaza Strip. Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Jahjouh)
People carry the bodies of Palestinians who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat into the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Saturday, April 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a Joint Ministerial Meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council and US to discuss the humanitarian crises faced in Gaza, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Monday, April 29, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP)
People gather next to a sign displayed on the street that reads in Hebrew "Rafah can wait, they cannot", in reference of a possible Israeli offensive on the Rafah, city in southern Gaza Strip, and calling for the release of the Israeli hostages held by the Hamas militant group, during a protest in Tel Aviv, Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza Strip. Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Jahjouh)
Mourners pray over the bodies of members of the Abu Taha family who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, during their funeral at Al-Salam cemetery, east of Rafah, Gaza Strip. Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Jahjouh)
Relatives and supporters of the Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group call for their release during a protest in Tel Aviv, Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Columbia sophomore, David Lederer, waves a large flag of Israel outside the student protest encampment on the campus of Columbia University, Monday, April 29, 2024, in New York. Protesters of the war in Gaza who are encamped at Columbia University have defied a deadline to disband with chants, clapping and drumming. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
A pro-Palestinian protester yells "Free Palestine" as she is handcuffed by University of Texas at Austin police on the campus Monday, April 29, 2024, in Austin, Texas. (Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
Demonstrators and law enforcement officers clash during a pro-Palestinian rally at Virginia Commonwealth University, Monday, April 29, 2024, in Richmond, Va. (Mike Kropf/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)
This undated photo released early Tuesday, April 30, 2024, by the U.S. military's Central Command shows construction off a floating pier in the Mediterranean Sea off the Gaza Strip. A U.S. Navy ship involved in the American-led effort to bring more aid into the besieged Gaza Strip is off shore from the enclave, slowly building out a floating platform for the operation, satellite photos analyzed Monday, April 29, 2024, by The Associated Press show. (U.S. military's Central Command via AP)
Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza Strip. Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Jahjouh)
Mourners carry the bodies of members of the Abu Taha family who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, during their funeral at Al-Salam cemetery, east of Rafah, Gaza Strip. Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Jahjouh)
Relatives and supporters of the Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group call for their release during a protest in Tel Aviv, Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a Joint Ministerial Meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council and US to discuss the humanitarian crises faced in Gaza, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Monday, April 29, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP)
Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza Strip. Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Jahjouh)
