Option™ ELITE Retrievable Inferior Vena Cava Filter
The lawsuit was filed by Ronald L., a man from Oklahoma who was implanted with the Option™ ELITE Retrievable Inferior Vena Cava Filter (“IVC Filter”) on February 12, 2016 at Community Hospital in Oklahoma City.
The filter was surgically implanted before his hip surgery to protect him from blood clots in the legs — Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT). It is very common in people who have limited mobility as they recover from surgery.
The danger is that blood clots in the legs sometimes break loose, travel in the bloodstream, and get trapped in the lungs. This life-threatening conditions is known as a Venous Thromboembolism (VTE).
On September 6, 2016, he went back to the same doctor to remove the IVC filter. During an unsuccessful attempted retrieval through his jugular vein, the doctor was unable to snare the hook of the IVC filter. According to the lawsuit:
The filter was unable to be removed due to tilt of the filter and embedment of the hook in the caval wall, and the procedure was stopped.”
Lawyers say Rex Medical failed to conduct sufficient clinical testing, such as animal studies, to determine how the IVC filter would function once it was permanently implanted in the body.
Rex Medical is also accused of failing to warn that the filter had a high rate of embedment, fracture, migration, excessive tilting, perforation of the vena cava, and thrombosis (blood clots) once it is implanted.
These complications can result in severe internal bleeding, cardiac tamponade, irregular heart rhythm, symptoms similar to a heart attack, severe pain, vein perforations, organ damage, and death.
The lawsuit was filed on March 17, 2017 in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas — Case ID. 170301832.
There are over 3,000 more IVC filter lawsuits now pending against Rex Medical L.P., Argon Medical Devices Inc., Cook Medical, and C.R. Bard. Most lawsuits are centralized in Arizona and Illinois.
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.