David Perse, M.D., president & CEO, St. Vincent Charity Medical Center

May 29, 2018

Today, St. Vincent Charity Medical Center, including Rosary Hall Addiction Treatment Center, filed as a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the manufacturers, distributors and retailers of prescription opioids in an effort to bring additional resources to the hospital and our community in order to strengthen our ability to save more lives and help more people in response to this crisis.

St. Vincent Charity Medical Center is hoping to serve as a leading example of the impact the opioid epidemic and the defendants’ actions have had on hospitals providing treatment and services related to opioid addiction.

Our decision to take legal action is the right thing to do. Rosary Hall will be able to be a greater part of the solution to the opioid epidemic in northeast Ohio than it is today, from treating patients to providing expert training for doctors in Addiction Medicine treatment.

This belief is best described by our co-medical director of Rosary Hall, Dr. Ted Parran:

“Twenty years ago, St. Vincent Charity Medical Center admitted 5 to 7 opioid addicts a week. Today, we are admitting that number each day.

Addictive disease, including opioid addiction, is the only disease that routinely strips people of all the basics of being a human being. Good people, solid and productive citizens, who in many cases became addicted to opiates first through legal prescriptions, have then been stripped of their self-image, their finances and often their legal standing.

Opioid addiction has killed too many, shattered families and communities, and left many isolated with the drug and no other meaningful relationship in their life. Their addiction was not a character weakness or moral flaw. In time they don’t even do it to get high. They do it to feel normal and not feel sick.

To those we treat in recovery, they long to be sober because the disease of addiction is so painful and isolating. At St. Vincent Charity Medical Center, we advocate so strongly for our patients because we are compelled to do so, both by our Catholic faith and by our mission as a hospital dealing with the devastation of addiction every day.”

Media contacts:

St. Vincent Charity Medical Center and Rosary Hall:

Rebecca Gallant, office: 216-696-8408, cell: 216-288-0239, rgallant@sistersofcharityhealth.org

Opioid Litigation:

Frank Gallucci, Plevin & Gallucci, office: 216-861-0804, fgallucci@pglawyer.com