The jury in Phoenix ordered C.R. Bard to pay Sherr-Una Booker $1.6 million in compensation for failing to adequately warn her about the risks of the IVC Filter, plus another $2 million in punitive damages.
The IVC Filter was implanted on June 21, 2007 to prevent blood clot complications. Instead, the IVC Filter broke apart inside her body. The lawsuit states that it fractured, migrated, tilted, and broken pieces perforated through a blood vessel called the inferior vena cava.
She had open-heart surgery due to those complications in 2014. Despite having the filter removed, broken pieces remain in her vein.
After 6-1/2 hours of deliberation, the jury determined that Bard was responsible for 80% of her injuries. The other 20% was blamed on a radiologist who failed to notice a fractured filter piece on an X-ray in 2009, before her injuries worsened to the point of needing surgery.
Her case is the first “bellwether” trial to be conducted in federal court in Arizona, where C.R. Bard is now facing over 3,600 similar lawsuits.
Another 3,800 lawsuits involving IVC Filters made by Cook Medical Inc. are pending in anther federal court in Indiana, with the first trial scheduled in November 2018, unless a settlement is reached.
The lawsuit is In RE: Booker v. Bard — Case No. 2:16-cv-00474 — In RE: Bard IVC Filters Products Liability Litigation in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.
Source: Bard Owes Injured Woman $3.6M In IVC Bellwether, Jury Finds
Editor’s note: For more information about IVC Filter lawsuits and your legal rights, please contact The Law Offices of Ben C. Martin.