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Deputy Sues Florida Hospital After Being Injected With Glitter (http://www.wftv.com/news/4468211/detail.html)

POSTED: 5:34 pm EDT May 9, 2005

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- An undercover Orange County deputy says he went to Florida Hospital for a shot of pain medication, but instead the syringe was filled with glitter, the kind used in makeup.
   
Even the attorney for Florida Hospital called this case exquisitely bizarre. It has not been exquisite for the undercover officer who claims, ever since the injection of glitter, he's been plagued by health problems.

It was cosmetic glitter, according to attorneys for the undercover deputy, injected right into muscles of the deputy's hip. The deputy had gone to Florida Hospital for sinus surgery in October of 2000. Nurses were supposed to inject him with Demerol. But one shot, he says, didn't make him feel better.
   
"There was a lot of pain. I complained several times that something was wrong in my buttock, hip, in the area I got the shot," said the deputy, whose identity Channel 9 is concealing.

Three months later, he had a four-inch by four-inch mass near the injection site. It took another surgery to remove it. An analysis determined there was "green and red sparkling material" around the mass. In other words, glitter.

"When Dr. Nawiki came to me and said we took some glitter looking stuff out of my buttock, I was shocked. I still am," the deputy said.

He continues to have health problems. He walks with a limp and has been hospitalized 12 more times. He's now suing Florida Hospital.

Attorneys for the hospital said in court Monday that no one knows exactly what was in the deputy's leg or how it ended up there. They suggested it might even be contaminated medicine, so the hospital should not be blamed.

Channel 9 wanted to ask Florida Hospital about any sort of investigation they've done into this situation, but their attorneys didn't want to comment and their press office did not return a call.

The trial is expected to last four more days.

Deputy Sues Florida Hospital After Being Injected With Glitter (http://www.wftv.com/news/4468211/detail.html)

They suggested it might even be contaminated medicine, so the hospital should not be blamed.

Contaminated with glitter? Good luck litigating That one away.

Can anyone who saw the Mariah Carey movie get in on the class action suit?

Jury Clears Florida Hospital Of Wrong-Doing In 'Glitter Trial' (http://www.wftv.com/news/4487436/detail.html)

POSTED: 4:20 pm EDT May 13, 2005
UPDATED: 5:16 pm EDT May 13, 2005

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- An Orange County jury cleared Florida Hospital in the so-called "Glitter Trial" on Friday afternoon. That means an undercover deputy, who discovered glitter inside his body, will not receive any money.
   
Florida Hospital attorneys were able to convince the jurors that nurses weren't negligent, but that decision doesn't answer the huge question. How did glitter end up in the man's body?

The attorney for the undercover deputy tried to convince the jury that a nurse preparing a pain shot injected the specks of green, red and gold right into the man's buttocks.
   
But after four days of often-strange testimony, it took jurors only a half hour to decide that the undercover deputy, whose identity Channel 9 will not disclose, should leave empty handed.

He was seeking more than two million dollars, much of it for horrible nerve damage in his buttocks that he says he's suffered as a result of the shot.

But Florida Hospital's attorney brought on a doctor who said, while there is nerve damage, it's caused by back problems and not any issues near the injection site. They also cast doubt on the idea a nurse was responsible for the glitter.

In the end, hospital attorneys say they did investigate and never determined how glitter ended up inside the man.

The deputy and his wife didn't want to comment on camera, but they said they're happy their story was told.