On June 21, U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell transferred the class action into one federal court in Arizona where over 600 individual lawsuits have already been filed by people with serious injuries.
Tens of thousands of people have been implanted with “temporary” blood clot filters. The FDA recommends removing them within 29-54 days, but only a small percentage are ever removed.
Many people are walking around with a fractured filter or a perforated vena cava and have no idea. They may not have any symptoms until the filter suddenly causes irregular heart rhythm or cardiac arrest.
The class action is seeking “appropriate diagnostic services” to help these people determine the condition and position of the filter. This information is necessary to determine the safest course of medical action to deal with a flawed device.
Lawyers say the wire legs of the filters (called “struts”) are prone to breaking. This can allow needle-like pieces to travel in the bloodstream and become lodged in a vein, artery, or vital organ like the heart or lungs. According to the complaint:
The filters also tend to break loose from the point of implantation and to migrate to other locations … The filters further have a significant chance of tilting within the IVC, perforating the vena cava and/or causing the formation of blood clots.”
The lawsuit accuses C.R. Bard of selling defective devices and failing to provide adequate warnings about safety, effectiveness, and failure rates.
The class action is Barraza et al. v. C.R. Bard in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona (Case No. 2:16-cv-01374).
Editor’s note: For more information about IVC Filter lawsuits and your legal rights, please contact The Law Offices of Ben C. Martin.