Four babies born at Chicago-area hospitals developed a dangerous intestinal disease after consuming a special formula for premature infants by Abbott Laboratories. The company is currently facing over 1,700 lawsuits across the country over whether its cow’s milk-based formula for babies born prematurely causes a disease called necrotizing enterocolitis, or NEC, which causes tissue lining the intestine to become inflamed and dies. The court is deciding whether the formula is unreasonably dangerous for certain preterm babies, whether Abbott failed to adequately warn about the dangers and risks of the formula, and whether Abbott was negligent. The cases were brought by the mothers of the four children against Abbott.