The lawsuit was filed by Diverson C., a man from Texas who was implanted with the Option™ Retrievable Inferior Vena Cava Filter (“IVC Filter”).
The filter was implanted at Seton Medical Center Hays, located in Kyle, Texas, on August 14, 2010. The filter was surgically implanted because the plaintiff had a history of blood clotting problems.
On November 15, 2016, the plaintiff underwent a CT scan of his abdomen. At that time, it was discovered that the filter was tilted and the left strut of the filter was projecting along the wall of the abdominal aorta.
Lawyers say before the plaintiff was implanted with the filter, Rex Medical knew or should have known that it was “defective and unreasonably dangerous.” The manufacturer is also accused of failing to conduct sufficient clinical testing, such as animal studies.
According to the lawsuit:
The Filter had a high rate of embedment, fracture, migration, excessive tilting, perforation of the vena cava wall, and thrombosis once implanted in the human body. … These risks for the Option™ Vena Cava Filter were and are substantially higher than other similar devices.”
Failure of the filter can lead to a number of different, and potentially fatal, complications; including: death, hemorrhage, thrombosis, cardiac/pericardial tamponade (pressure caused by a collection of blood in the area around the heart), severe and persistent pain, and perforation of tissues, vessels, and organs.
The lawsuit was filed on April 3, 2017 in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas — Case ID: 170400250.
There are 3,000 other IVC filter lawsuits pending against Argon Medical Devices, Inc., Rex Medical L.P., Cook Medical, C.R. Bard, and other manufacturers in state and federal courts nationwide.
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.