The lawsuit was filed by Robert W., a man who was implanted with the Option™ ELITE Retrievable Inferior Vena Cava Filter on August 25, 2015 at Scripps Mercy Hospital in Chula Vista, California.
The filter was implanted in his body to prevent blood clots in his legs from traveling to his lungs and causing a pulmonary embolism.
He returned to the hospital to have the filter removed about two months later. Retrieval attempts were unsuccessful because the filter was tilted and the retrieval hook was embedded in the wall of his vein.
So long as the filter remains in his body, it continues to pose a risk of causing major side effects — thrombosis (blood clots), puncturing through the vein and into nearby organs, spinal injuries, and more:
The implanted filter also continues to pose an increased risk of fracturing, including the risk that fractured portions will travel to the Plaintiff’s lungs or heart with the possibility of causing immediate death or serious injury.”
Lawyers say Rex Medical and Argon Medical Devices knew — or should have anticipated — serious safety problems with the Option ELITE because its design is so similar to the Bard Recovery Filter.
Option ELITE was approved in 2013. It did not go through clinical trials because it was “equivalent” to the Option, which was “equivalent” to the Bard Recovery and G2 Filters.
Recovery was pulled off the market in 2005, shortly after Bard’s own studies raised concerns about fractures and migrations. It was replaced by the G2, which was pulled off the market in 2010. Studies estimate that 40% of these filters fracture within about 5 years.
A recent investigation by NBC News found hundreds of injury reports and around 40 deaths associated with the Recovery and G2. Around 1,300 lawsuits have been filed by victims.
Rex Medical and Argon Medical Devices are accused of inadequately testing the Option ELITE for safety, failing to warn about side effects, and selling an unreasonably dangerous medical device.
The lawsuit was filed on January 20, 2017 in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas — Case ID. 170102821.
There are now approximately 3,000 other IVC filter lawsuits now pending against Rex Medical, Argon Medical Devices, Cook Medical, and C.R. Bard.
The plaintiff is represented by attorney Ben C. Martin of The Law Offices of Ben C. Martin in Dallas, Texas; and attorney Stephen A. Sheller of Sheller, P.C., in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Editor’s note: For more information about IVC Filter lawsuits and your legal rights, please contact The Law Offices of Ben C. Martin.