The lawsuit was filed by Robert H., a man from Illinois who was implanted with the Meridian® Inferior Vena Cava Filter (“IVC Filter”) manufactured by C.R. Bard Inc. and Bard Peripheral Vascular Inc.
Bard Meridian® IVC Filter
The IVC Filter was surgically implanted in his body on March 19, 2014 at a hospital in Illinois.
The IVC filter was supposed to prevent a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lungs), but it caused severe side effects.
The Meridian IVC Filter is one of the newest IVC Filters on the market in the United States. But when it was approved by the FDA in 2011, it was not required to undergo rigorous clinical trials.
Instead, C.R. Bard gained approval for the Meridian IVC Filter with a 510(k) application, which means it was allowed on the market in the U.S. because it was “substantially equivalent” to several other IVC Filters manufactured by C.R. Bard.
Lawyers accuse C.R. Bard of selling a defective medical device and inadequately testing the Meridian IVC Filter for safety.
C.R. Bard is facing 13 charges in the lawsuit:
- strict products liability — manufacturing defect
- strict products liability — information defect (failure to warn)
- strict products liability — design defect
- negligence — design
- negligence — manufacture
- negligence — failure to warn
- negligence per se
- breach of express warranty
- breach of implied warranty
- fraudulent misrepresentation
- fraudulent concealment
- violations of applicable law prohibiting consumer fraud and unfair and deceptive trade practices
- punitive damages
The lawsuit was filed on August 25, 2017 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona — Case No. 2:17-cv-02875-DGC.
It will be centralized with over 2,200 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. He serves on the plaintiffs’ steering committee of the Bard IVC Filter MDL.
