A Medical Device Daily

A lawsuit has been filed against Advanced Micro Devices (AMD; Austin, Texas) and a regional medical association that claims to treat 15% of Austin-area residents alleging that AMD and the association are responsible for multiple birth defects in an Austin baby born with a missing lower right arm and lifelong cognitive deficits.

The lawsuit was filed in Travis County District Court in Texas.

The suit charges that the child’s mother, a former AMD clean room employee, was exposed to birth defect-causing hazardous chemicals during her pregnancy and that AMD knowingly failed to protect its workers from these hazardous chemicals.

The petition also alleges medical malpractice by a family/occupational health practitioner and an OB/GYN specialist at Austin Regional Clinic and an AMD contractor. George Marking, MD, and Alinda Cox, MD, failed to warn the woman of the dangers posed by exposure to the chemicals, according to allegations in the lawsuit.

The suit says that Maria Ruiz, an AMD employee who worked in the company’s “Fab 14” clean room from 1988 to 2002, was exposed to a host of toxic chemicals, including ethylene glycol monoethyl ether acetate and 2-ethoxyethyl acetate, which caused the birth defects in her son. On at least two occasions during her employment, Ruiz required medical care due to inhaling chemical fumes, the lawsuit states.

In 1991, after an AMD-required physical exam conducted by ARC, the manufacturer’s occupational health contractor, Ruiz discovered she was pregnant. And the suit says that Marking, who made the pregnancy diagnosis, and Cox, who treated her during that pregnancy, failed to warn Ruiz of the dangers from the manufacturing chemicals.

It says that Ruiz inquired concerning the health risks from working in the clean room during her pregnancy, but AMD returned her to the Fab 14 clean room, according to the lawsuit.

Ruiz’s baby had multiple birth defects, including a missing right arm below his elbow, brain injury and cognitive deficits.

“He has suffered and will continue to suffer significant developmental impairments requiring special education needs” and “will continue to suffer great mental pain and anguish, disfigurement and physical impairment, according to the lawsuit, and will incur medical and special education expenses,” the petition states. AMD, ARC and Marking and Cox negligently exposed Maria and Ryan Ruiz to “an abnormally dangerous and ultra-hazardous activity,” according to the lawsuit, and they “failed to warn or advise Mrs. Ruiz of the dangers of AMD’s premises and the chemicals it used.”

The petition charges negligence, breach of warranty, fraud and fraudulent concealment and misrepresentation.