The lawsuit was filed by Marton F., a man from Ohio who was injured by the G2® Inferior Vena Cava Filter (“IVC Filter”) manufactured by C.R. Bard and Bard Peripheral Vascular Inc.
The IVC Filter was surgically implanted in his inferior vena cava at a hospital in Ohio on February 7, 2011. The purpose of the IVC Filter was to catch blood clots in the bloodstream and prevent a Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) or Pulmonary Embolism (PE).
The lawsuit was filed after the G2® IVC Filter failed and caused health problems, allegedly as a result of dangerous design flaws.
The G2® is a 2nd-generation retrievable IVC Filter that was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2005, the same year Bard withdrew it’s 1st-generation Recovery® IVC Filter.
The G2® was approved without undergoing clinical trials because it was “substantially equivalent” to the Recovery — and not surprisingly, Bard identified similar safety issues within 4 months of the approval.
An investigation by NBC News uncovered confidential records showing that C.R. Bard was concerned about reports of failures, such as fracture, migration, or embolization of broken pieces.
There are now hundreds of injuries and at least 12 deaths associated with the G2®, as well as 27 deaths and hundreds more injuries associated with the Recovery® — and many deaths involve IVC filters that broke apart due to metal fatigue. This complication is extremely dangerous because a fractured metal IVC filter in the inferior vena cava can potentially send needle-like wire legs straight to a patient’s heart.
C.R. Bard is accused of negligence for manufacturing and selling a defective medical device, failing to warn about side effects, conducting inadequate safety tests, and violating laws against consumer fraud.
The lawsuit was filed on July 11, 2017 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona — Case 2:17-cv-02240-DGC.
It will be centralized with over 2,000 other IVC filter lawsuits nationwide that are currently pending against C.R. Bard Inc. in a federal 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.