From her death bed, a 43-year-old New York woman is suing her oncologist for malpractice, alleging he used a controversial medical device that caused cancer cells to spread throughout her internal organs.

Plaintiff Viviana R., a Stage 4 cancer patient, underwent a minimally invasive hysterectomy last year at a hospital in New Jersey. Hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the uterus and/or other surrounding structures, and Viviana’s oncologist, Dr. Howard Jones, used a controversial power morcellator to complete the surgery.

Viviana alleges that this device directly caused her to develop Stage 4 cancer, and she is filing a morcellator lawsuit from her death bed in response.

According the power morcellator lawsuit, Jones used the medical device to cut and tear tissue in Viviana’s uterus so a large uterine fibroid could be removed. Mere weeks after the procedure in October 2014, Viviana was diagnosed with incurable Stage 4 leiomyosarcoma cancer.

Viviana’s morcellator cancer lawsuit has been filed against her doctors, the hospital, and the device maker Karl Storz Endoscopy.

Viviana may run into some issues with her morcellator lawsuit, in that it is apparently very difficult to detect sarcoma cells in a biopsy, meaning that had her doctor performed a pre-operative biopsy, he still may not have detected the cancer. This information may make it difficult to declare that her doctor’s use of a power morcellator directly caused morcellator cancer.

Controversy Over Use of Power Morcellators

The power morcellator that was used in Viviana’s surgery is not new to the medical community, and was approved in 1991 to remove uterine fibroids. The device makes extremely small incisions, which in turn help patients recover quicker and easier.

In recent years, however, the power morcellator has come under some heavy scrutiny. In April 2014, the FDA released a safety alert against morcellators. In the statement, the agency acknowledged that the power morcellator can potentially spread undetected cancer cells.

In the process of removing a structure such as uterine fibroids, a power morcellator can cut up tissue fragments that, unknown to the doctor, are cancerous. These tissue fragments, once cut, are left behind as the fibroid or other structure is removed, and can spread from there to other parts of the body.

Once this information came to light, the government began discouraging doctors from the use of morcellators. They also encouraged medical professionals to discuss the risks and benefits of such devices with their patients before operating.

In response to the FDA’s warnings, Ethicon pulled the morcellator device off the market. Ethicon is a division of the giant Johnson & Johnson company, and is the largest manufacturer of power morcellators.

Despite these warnings and the morcellator manufacturer’s response, the power morcellator lawsuit alleges that Viviana’s doctor continued using the tool. Viviana claims that her doctor did not perform a pre-operative biopsy, nor did he discuss the risks of using a power morcellator, as the FDA advised..

Since Viviana’s terminal leiomyosarcoma diagnosis, the FDA has reassessed the risk of cancer for women undergoing a fibroid removal surgery or hysterectomy. The agency recently increased the risk of undetected aggressive cancer cells after a hysterectomy for fibroids from one in 500 to one 352.

Experts say that, given the FDA warnings and various manufacturers’ retractions of morcellator devices, it is probably best to avoid using a power morcellation device in surgical procedures.

Two dozen morcellator lawsuits have already been filed in the country for morcellator cancer. If you or someone you know has undergone a surgery where a doctor has used a power morcellator and have since contracted cancer, you may be able to file a morcellator cancer lawsuit.

The Power Morcellator Cancer Lawsuit is Case No. 2:15-cv-05704-JLL-JAD, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.