(March 30, 2018) The first Bard IVC filter verdict in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona yielded a $4 million jury award for a woman injured by one of the blood clot filter devices. The jury ordered C.R. Bard to pay plaintiff Sherr-Una Booker $1.6 million for failing to warn her surgeon about problems linked with the filter, and an additional $2 million in punitive damages. The jury found Bard 80% responsible, a radiologist 20% responsible.
The woman’s C.R. Bard blood filter broke inside her body, causing her to suffer open heart surgery. The jury found that Bard had negligently failed to warn the plaintiff and doctors of the device’s problems despite numerous reports of IVC filter complications.
The jury found 20% of fault attributable to radiology errors. Law 360 reported that a radiologist “failed to flag a visibly separated filter piece on an X-ray in 2009, before Booker’s injuries developed to the point where she needed open-heart surgery.” Bard’s share of the total damages amounts to $3.6 million. Despite Bard’s arguments blaming the surgeon, the jury found the surgeon was only partially able to remove pieces of the broken IVC filter from the plaintiff’s body, and was not a cause of her injuries.
IVC Filters show no proof of efficacy but proof of harm
“We expect to see many more of these verdicts,” said attorney David Matthews, who deposed Ms. Booker’s interventions radiologist in the case. “IVC filters show no proof of efficacy with proof of harm.”
Ms. Booker’s federal case is one of nearly 3,500 claims consolidated in the Ariz. MDL, where U.S. District Court Judge David Campbell is presiding. Ms. Booker filed the case after her IVC filter broke apart in her body. The judge limited the legal claims to defective design, failure to warn, and punitive damages. The plaintiff won all but defective design.
In addition to the $1.6 million award for failure to warn, the jury added another $2 million in punitive damages.
IVC Filter Verdict: $4 Million
First filed in February 2016, Ms. Booker’s lawsuit claimed that her injuries included IVC filter tilting, fracture and perforation. The case is 2:15-md-02641-DGC)
C.R. Bard faces an additional several thousand IVC filter lawsuits filed in state courts across the country.
IVC Filter History
IVC filters were first introduced in 1979. Since then, hundreds of thousands of IVC filters have been implanted in people.
IVC Filter Lawsuits
In August 2010, the FDA issued a safety communication that stated IVC filters “are not always removed.” The agency indicated then that known long-term IVC filter risks included lower limb deep vein thrombosis, filter fracture, filter migration, filter embolization, IVC perforation. More than 7,000 IVC filter lawsuits have been filed in state and federal courts against C.R. Bard, Cook Medical, Johnson & Johnson, Cordis Corporation, B. Braun, Rex Medical, and other filter makers.
Related
- First Bard IVC Filter Trial Scheduled
- Lawyers can depose ex-Cook President
by Matthews & Associates
