The lawsuit was filed by Karen O., a woman who was implanted with the C.R. Bard G2® Vena Cava Filter in October 2007 at hospital in Pennsylvania.
C.R. Bard is accused of negligence for selling a defective medical device and failing to warn about safety risks.
The G2 was created to replace the Recovery® Vena Cava Filter, which C.R. Bard pulled off the market in 2005 after studies linked it to higher risks of fracture and migration than its competitors. Both filters have similar designs, and the G2 was soon linked to similar complications as the Recovery.
But instead of recalling the G2, Bard kept it on the market for another five years, selling 160,000 devices by 2010. Hundreds of injuries and at least 12 deaths are now linked to the G2, according to NBC News.
In November 2010, a study of linked the G2 with high rates of fracture and embolization with potentially life-threatening risks. Out of 52 patients implanted with the G2, six (12%) fractured, and in two of these cases, broken pieces of the filter got stuck in a vital organ.
The lawsuit was filed on October 18, 2016 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona — Case No. 2:16-cv-03593.
It will be centralized with over 1,000 other IVC filter lawsuits now pending against C.R. Bard in 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.