C.R. Bard and Cook IVC Filters Investigations
IVC Filters Investigation (C.R. Bard and Cook)
Stueve Siegel Hanson is investigating claims of personal injuries and deaths resulting from retrievable Inferior Vena Cava (IVC) filters.
What Are IVC Filters?
Inferior Vena Cava (IVC) filters are small, cage-like devices that are inserted into a patient’s body to prevent blood clots from reaching the lungs. Retrievable IVC filters are designed to be used for a temporary period of time until the risk of blood clots has subsided.
Patients undergoing bariatric surgery, orthopedic surgery, and trauma victims are most likely to be implanted with an IVC filter.
There are several manufacturers of retrievable IVC filters with C.R. Bard and Cook Medical as the most commonly used filters.
What Can Go Wrong?
Serious injuries including death, severe pain, pulmonary embolus, respiratory compromise, hemorrhage, and damage to tissue, vessels, and organs can occur due to the migration, fracture, and perforation of IVC filters.
Migration: the IVC filter can move which can cause fracture, perforation, and can cause the device to be ineffective resulting in blood clots.
Device Fracture: pieces of the filter can break off and become lodged in the heart, lung, liver and kidney. IVC fractures have caused serious injuries and resulted in several deaths.
Perforation: the IVC filter can punch holes in adjacent organs and vessels and make it very difficult to remove without causing bodily harm.
FDA Warnings:
On May 6, 2014, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) updated a previous safety communication regarding the amount of time an IVC retrievable filter should remain in a patient’s body. According to the FDA, the longer an IVC filter remains in a patient’s body the higher the risk for an injury to occur. The FDA now recommends IVC removal within 29-64 days to reduce this higher risk of injury. For the complete FDA communication on IVC Filters, click here.
On July 13, 2015, following an investigation, the FDA issued a warning letter to Bard stating that Bard’s IVC filter manufacturing facilities failed to investigate or attempt to address complaints regarding IVC filters, including reports “of at least 110 patients who were exposed to scheduled retrieval surgical procedures to remove an IVC filter that were not successful”.
IVC Filter Litigation
Across the country, lawsuits are being filed against the manufacturers of retrievable IVC filters. The plaintiffs claim defects in the filters caused serious injuries and deaths.
A number of these lawsuits were consolidated by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) as multidistrict litigations (MDL). A MDL is designed to efficiently manage a large number of civil cases filed across the county that share at least one common question of fact. They are consolidated in to a single federal district court, which then handles all discovery and pretrial proceedings for the lawsuits.
In Indianapolis, Indianan there are currently lawsuits pending against Cook Medical, Inc., in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.
In Phoenix, Arizona there are currently lawsuits pending against C.R. Bard in the U.S. District Court of Arizona
Contact Us
Our attorneys are investigating injuries caused by IVC retrievable filters. If you or someone you know was injured by an implanted retrievable IVC filter, and wish to receive a free confidential consultation about your legal options, please call 1.866.714.0875.
