The lawsuit was filed by Kenneth S., a man who was implanted with the Cook Celect® Platinum Vena Cava Filter on December 16, 2014 at King’s Daughter Medical Center in Brookhaven, Mississippi.
The Celect Platinum is an “optional” filter for permanent or temporary use. It has secondary struts to center the filter in a vein called the inferior vena cava (IVC), where it catches blood clots.
These secondary struts were designed to enable retrieval, even if the other struts were embedded in the vein. However, the design may have significantly increased the risk of migration and vein penetration.
In 2007, a study blamed the Celect’s high rate of vein penetration injuries on an “unprotected primary strut” design flaw.
In 2009, another study reviewed 73 patients with the Celect and found that 5.5% substantially tilted immediately after they were implanted. After just 62 days, 14.9% of patients had filter-related complications like strut penetration, fractures, and embolization of broken pieces.
In 2014, one of the most concerning studies of the Celect found an extremely high risk of vein penetration — 39% within 30 days and 80% within 90 days — with the risk increasing over time.
Furthermore, 35 out of 265 (13.2%) filters penetrated through the vein into at least one adjacent organ, duodenum, aorta, muscle, vertebra, pancreas, adrenal gland, liver, kidney, lymph node, or diaphragm.
Multiple studies have confirmed an extremely high rate of vein penetration with the Celect. One study found a 86.1% vein perforation rate within about 5 months, and another study involving 27 patients showed that all of them had a perforation within 71 days.
Vein perforations do not always cause symptoms, but they do make the filter harder to remove. In some cases, IVC filters are impossible to remove and patients face a lifetime of health risks and follow-up care.
Lawyers accuse Cook Medical of downplaying these risks, selling a defective medical device, and failing to warn about side effects.
The lawsuit was filed on February 8, 2017 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana (Indianapolis Division) — Case No. 1:17-cv-00408.
It will be centralized with over 1,370 other IVC filter lawsuits now pending in Multi-District Litigation (MDL No. 2570)— In Re: Cook Medical, Inc., IVC Filters Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation.
The plaintiff is represented by Ben C. Martin and Thomas Wm. Arbon of The Law Offices of Ben C. Martin.
Ben C. Martin is a trial attorney based in Dallas, Texas who serves as the plaintiffs’ co-lead counsel in the Cook IVC Filter MDL.