The lawsuit was filed by Elaine S., a woman from Texas who was injured by the G2® Inferior Vena Cava Filter (“IVC Filter”) manufactured by C.R. Bard Inc. and Bard Peripheral Vascular Inc.
C.R. Bard G2® Inferior Vena Cava Filter
The IVC filter was surgically implanted at a hospital in Texas on December 3, 2009. The purpose of the filter was to prevent pulmonary embolisms by catching blood clots before they got stuck in the lungs.
The G2 was recently linked to the highest risk of fracturing of any IVC filter on the market — 38% are estimated to fracture within 5 years, according to a study published in the Journal of Vascular Interventional Radiology in June 2014.
C.R. Bard grew concerned about reports of fracturing G2 IVC filters within 4 months of approval. Instead of recalling the G2, they sold 160,000 filters over the next 5 years. It was pulled off the market without a recall in 2010, shortly after it was implanted in the plaintiff.
At least 12 deaths and hundreds of injuries are now linked to the G2 IVC filters. According to Dr. William Kuo, a radiologist at Stanford who specializes in removing IVC filters:
All of the data that we’ve seen in our own studies, as well as other clinician researchers’, is that this device consistently fractures, consistently causes major complications.”
Lawyers say C.R. Bard knew or should have known about the high risk of fracturing long before removing the G2 from the market. Its design was nearly identical to the Recovery® IVC Filter, a 1st-generation model that was linked to high rates of fracturing in 2004.
The lawsuit was filed on May 26, 2017 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona — Case No. 2:17-cv-01630.
C.R. Bard is facing over 1,850 other IVC filter lawsuits in a centralized 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 as plaintiffs’ co-lead counsel in the Cook IVC Filter MDL and is on the plaintiffs’ steering committee of the Bard IVC Filter MDL.
