Three trials in 90 days have ended in juries awarding nearly $7 million to 3 people who were seriously injured by Inferior Vena Cava Filters (“IVC Filters”) made by C.R. Bard and Bard Peripheral Vascular.
The plaintiffs were represented by Schmidt & Clark, LLP and Ben C. Martin of the law firm Martin Baughman PLLC, in Dallas, Texas.
“Bard wants to try cases, so we try cases,” said Martin. The result has been a remarkable series of victories — and more trials on the way.
Martin’s co-lead counsel Laura Baughman said she could not recall a similar streak of victories against a device-maker in such a short time. “I don’t know if it’s happened or not. I really don’t have time to think about it. We have three more trials next month.”
“Three different juries in three different states have unanimously found that the Bard IVC filters in question all had an unacceptable safety profile that caused serious harm to our clients,” said attorney Joseph Johnson, counsel for one of the plaintiffs.
Martin Baughman PLLC and Schmidt & Clark, LLP has recently obtained $10 million in jury verdicts for IVC Filter cases, including $7 million in the past 90 days and a $3 million jury verdict in 2019 against Cook Medical in Indiana.
On May 14, Justin P. was awarded $926,000 by a unanimous jury in Portland, Oregon, after a Bard Eclipse® IVC Filter punctured his vein and intestines, causing major internal bleeding. He required emergency surgery to remove the filter and repair his organ damage.
On May 28, Schaneiqua W. was awarded over $2.5 million by a jury in Dallas, Texas. In 2018, she was hospitalized with blood clots in her lungs, and doctors discovered that her Bard Recovery® IVC Filter had fractured into pieces that traveled to her heart and lungs.
On June 17, Natalie J. was awarded $3.3 million by a unanimous jury in Wisconsin. She was implanted with a Bard Meridian® IVC Filter that tilted, became embedded in her vein, and later broke into pieces. She required multiple surgeries to remove the filter and the broken piees.
C.R. Bard has been slammed with around 8,000 IVC Filter lawsuits nationwide. The cases were centralized in a Multi-District Litigation (MDL) under a federal judge in Arizona, but in 2019, the MDL was disbanded after Bard reached settlements with thousands of plaintiffs.
Hundreds of lawsuits that did not reach settlements have been sent back to their respective state courts. Many are now scheduled for trial.
All of the lawsuits accuse C.R. Bard, Cook Medical and other companies of selling defective, unreasonably dangerous IVC Filters.
IVC Filters are spider-like wire filters that are implanted in the inferior vena cava to catch blood clots. They were advertised to reduce a patient’s risk of pulmonary embolisms. Instead, many people suffered life-threatening complications when the filter broke or malfunctioned.
Thousands of people were seriously injured when an IVC Filter became embedded in their vein, fractured into pieces that traveled to their heart, moved out of position, punctured internal organs, caused internal bleeding, or needed emergency surgery to remove.
C.R. Bard pulled several IVC Filters off the market due to high rates of these severe side effects, including the Recovery, G2, and G2X. However, the company’s next-generation IVC Filters — such as the Meridian and Eclipse — have also been linked to similar health risks.
Editor’s note: If you or a loved one has been injured by an IVC filter, you should contact a lawyer experienced in this type of litigation.
The Law Offices of Ben C. Martin was one of the first in the country to pursue these cases. In addition, Ben C. Martin has a leadership position in virtually all of the cases against the various manufacturers of these dangerous devices.
For more information about IVC filter lawsuits and your legal rights, please contact The Law Offices of Ben C. Martin. He offers a Free Case Evaluation.
Click Here to Learn More About The Law Offices of Ben C. Martin