Broward Circuit Judge Nicholas Lopane gave the green light to a class-action lawsuit that alleges Nova Southeastern University's post-graduate orthodontic clinic risked patients contracting blood borne diseases, like HIV and hepatitis B and C, by failing to properly sterilize equipment.

Davie resident TIffany Aguero, the mother of one patient, sued for negligence in December 2018 after she and about 1,100 others received a letter from NSU saying that they or their children might have been affected by a breach in protocol at one clinic.

“We discovered there was an inconsistency in the prescribed sterilization protocols,” the letter said. “Our records indicate that you were one of the patients who may have been exposed to this deviation in protocol.”