The lawsuit was filed by Tyrone G., a man from New York who was implanted with the C.R. Bard G2® Vena Cava Filter on April 16, 2008.
The G2 is a retrievable filter that is implanted in a vein called the inferior vena cava (IVC). It was approved in 2005 for short-term protection against pulmonary embolisms (blood clots in the lungs).
Historically, IVC filters were permanent devices that were left in place for the lifetime of the patient. They were created in the 1970s, but only used as a last resort in rare circumstances. That all changed in the mid-2000s, when the FDA started approving “temporary” IVC filters.
As a result, the number of people who received an IVC filter in the U.S. per year grew from 56,380 to 132,049 between 2000 and 2009 — mostly due to the skyrocketing use of retrievable filters like the Bard G2.
The problem is that very few of these “short-term” filters were ever removed, despite no long-term safety studies. Not surprisingly, many people were seriously injured or died when their filters eventually broke.
The FDA issued a safety warning in 2010 after nearly 1,000 serious injuries were reported since 2005. A few weeks later, a study of the G2 found “high prevalences of fracture and embolization, with potentially life-threatening sequelae.”
More recently, another study estimated that 38% of G2 IVC filters would fracture within 5 years. In several cases, broken pieces of the G2 filter also traveled in the bloodstream until they got stuck in the patient’s heart or lungs.
C.R. Bard pulled the G2 off the market in 2010, after selling approximately 160,000 of the devices worldwide. The FDA has now received reports of 12 deaths and hundreds of injuries, according to an investigation by NBC News.
Lawyers say C.R. Bard should have known the G2 was dangerous because its design was so similar to the Bard Recovery, another retrievable filter that was also linked to a 40% 5.5-year fracture risk.
C.R. Bard is also accused of selling dangerous medical devices, downplaying safety risks, and failing to conduct adequate safety tests.
The lawsuit was filed on February 23, 2017 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona — Case No. 2:17-cv-00553.
It will be centralized with around 1,470 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 a trial attorney who serves on the plaintiffs’ steering committee of the Bard IVC Filter MDL.
I got IVC filter put in me in 2005 I cannot find out what brand it was the hospital Purge the records and I don’t know how to find out what brand it is if somebody can help me out and tell me how to find out what filter they put in me