The lawsuit was filed by Bobbie J. B., a woman who was implanted with the C.R. Bard Recovery® Vena Cava Filter on June 9, 2005 at a hospital in Texas.
She accuses C.R. Bard of negligence for selling a defective medical device and failing to warn about safety risks.
C.R. Bard pulled the Recovery off the market in 2005, but never issued a formal recall or safety warnings. It had only been on the market since 2003. The decision came soon after a study by Dr. John Lehmann linked the Recovery to higher rates of migration and fracture than its competitors.
Over the next few years, several studies confirmed his findings. In one study from 2010, Recovery filters fractured and embolized in 7 out of 28 (25%) patients.
In February 2012, a study of 363 patients implanted with the Recovery found that 40% fractured within 5.5 years. The earliest fracture occurred after just four months. In several cases, broken pieces of the filter traveled in the bloodstream and got stuck in the heart or lungs.
The lawsuit was filed on October 20, 2016 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona — Case No. 2:16-cv-03629.
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.
Editor’s note: For more information about IVC Filter lawsuits and your legal rights, please contact The Law Offices of Ben C. Martin.