Enfamil Side Effects Lawsuit Filed Over Infant’s Necrotizing Enterocolitis Injuries

A North Carolina mother has filed a lawsuit against Mead Johnson, indicating that the infant formula manufacturer has withheld information from medical providers and families about potential side effects from Enfamil, which caused her premature daughter to develop necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) after she was fed the cow’s milk-based infant formula in the hospital shortly following her birth.

The complaint (PDF) was brought by Marcia Lawary in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on November 14, pursuing damages on behalf of herself and her daughter, identified only with the initials L.M.

The lawsuit accuses Mead Johnson of withholding warnings about the potential Enfamil side effects that preterm infants may experience, including the risks of NEC, which is a devastating condition that occurs when an infant’s intestinal tissue becomes enflamed and dies, often resulting in the need for emergency surgery or fatal injuries.

While there is a growing body of scientific evidence indicating cow’s milk-based infant formula like Enfamil or Similac greatly increase the risk of NEC among premature infants, Lawary and other parents indicate Mead Johnson has done nothing to prevent or lessen the risks associated with their products, continuing to promote their infant formula for use among vulnerable preterm babies.

According to Lawary’s lawsuit, her daughter, L.M. was born in a North Carolina hospital on August 30, 2013. Because she was born prematurely, doctors fed L.M. Enfamil while she was still hospitalized, unaware that the cow’s milk-based formula was dangerous for preemies.

“Shortly after L.M. first ingested Defendants’ product, she developed NEC,” the lawsuit states. “L.M. was forced to undergo surgery, suffered NEC symptoms and accompanying harm, and has continued to suffer long-term health effects.”

The lawsuit indicates that Mead Johnson knew preterm and low birth weight infants were at increased risk of NEC from their infant formula products, but continued to encourage hospitals to use it anyway, in order to increase and protect profits at the expense of newborns.

Lawary notes that in 2023, a Surgeon General report warned that “for vulnerable premature infants, formula feeding is associated with higher rates of necrotizing enterocolitis.” The surgeon general warned that premature infants who are not breast fed face a 138% increased risk of developing NEC.

The lawsuit presents claims of design defect, failure to warn, negligence, intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, breach of warranty, deceptive trade practices, and seeks compensatory damages.

November 2024 Enfamil and Similac NEC Lawsuits Update

Lawary’s lawsuit joins hundreds of similar Enfamil lawsuits and Similac lawsuits currently being pursued by families in both federal and state courts.

Given common allegations raised in claims filed in U.S. District Courts nationwide, the federal litigation has been centralized before U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer in the Northern District of Illinois since 2022, to oversee coordinated pretrial proceedings.

To help manage the growing number of infant formula NEC lawsuits, Judge Pallmeyer has established a “bellwether” program, where a group of representative claims have been selected for a series of early trial dates, which are designed to help the parties gauge how juries will respond to certain evidence and testimony that will be repeated throughout the litigation.

The parties selected four baby formula NEC lawsuit bellwether candidates in October 2023, and have been preparing each of the claims for trial over the past year. The first MDL trial dates for the NEC lawsuits are expected to begin in May 2025, and will be spaced about 12 weeks apart.

However, three trials have already been held at the state level, resulting in  two massive victories for families of children who developed NEC.

In March 2024, an Illinois jury ordered Mead Johnson to pay $60 million in damages in an Enfamil lawsuit brought by Jasmine Watson. Following more than four weeks of testimony, it took the jury only four hours to reach a verdict, awarding $25 million more in damages than Watson’s attorneys had asked for.

In July 2024, a separate jury in St. Louis ordered Abbott Laboratories to pay $495 million in a Similac lawsuit, including a massive punitive damages award intended to punish the manufacturer for disregarding the health and safety of premature infants and families.

While the outcomes of these early trial dates do not have any binding impact on lawsuits being pursued by other families, the average lawsuit payouts may have a substantial impact on the amount that Abbott and Mead Johnson could be required to pay in NEC settlements to avoid hundreds of additional claims going before juries.