The lawsuit was filed by Michael M., a man who was implanted with the C.R. Bard G2® Vena Cava Filter on January 24, 2010 at a hospital in California.
C.R. Bard is accused of selling a defective medical device and failing to warn about safety risks. His lawyers say the company should have known the G2 was dangerous because it is nearly identical to the Recovery filter.
C.R. Bard introduced the G2 in 2005 to replace the Recovery, which the company pulled off the market after an internal study by Dr. John Lehmann found higher risks than its competitors.
In 2012, a study estimated that 40% of Recovery filters would fracture within 5.5 years. Likewise, another study estimated that 38% of G2 filters would fracture within 5 years, based on data from 684 patients from 2005 to 2010.
Bard sold about 160,000 G2 filters from 2005 to 2010, before pulling it off the market without any recall. Hundreds of injuries and at least 12 deaths are now linked to the G2, according to NBC News.
The lawsuit was filed on November 8, 2016 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona — Case No. 2:16-cv-03870.
The case will be transferred into a federal court where C.R. Bard is facing over 1,000 similar lawsuits — Multi-District Litigation (MDL No. 2641)— In Re: Bard IVC Filters Products Liability Litigation.
The plaintiff is represented by Ben C. Martin of The Law Offices of Ben C. Martin in Dallas, Texas.