In a recent power morcellator lawsuit, a New York woman filed legal action against a New Jersey hospital, several doctors, and the manufacturing company Karl Storz. The plaintiff alleges that the power morcellator device used in her laparoscopic hysterectomy procedure caused her to develop an aggressive form of uterine cancer.

Soon after her surgery, Plaintiff Viviana R. was diagnosed with metastasized stage four uterine cancer. Viviana  has filed her power morcellator complaint in a New Jersey federal on July 22 of this year, claiming the Unidrive morcellation device used during her hysterectomy and bilateral salpingectomy at Valley Hospital in New Jersey on Oct. 17, 2014, caused her cancer.

Viviana also names the manufacturing company of the morcellator device, Karl Storz, as a defendant in the morcellator cancer lawsuit because she claims that the company deliberately concealed the dangers associated with their devices. According to the power morcellator lawsuit, Viviana voiced her concerns regarding the device and the possible spread of undetected cancer cells to her surgeons, but was reportedly reassured by the defendants.

Furthermore, Viviana states that her physicians should have known the risks attached to the power morcellator device and either should not have used it or had taken stronger precautions during her surgery; Viviana criticizes the hospital for even allowing the robotic laparoscopic surgery to take place.

Viviana was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma just days after her hysterectomy, and had to begin treatment immediately. She later had to undergo several more surgeries, including a total hysterectomy because of a blood clot that formed in her ovaries.

Additionally the morcellator cancer lawsuit claims that Viviana’s blood clot condition was not diagnosed correctly due to the aggressive cancer and her cancer eventually spread to the right side of her abdomen, pelvis, and lungs. She is currently undergoing chemotherapy.

Power Morcellator Complications

While Viviana’s case is unfortunate, her claims have become all too common in the legal world, as numerous women have reported similar injuries after morcellator surgery. These tools are often used by surgeons for laparoscopic surgeries because they are able to make very small but accurate openings in the abdomen area. Attached to the power morcellators are tiny rotating blades, which are used to breakdown large tissue fragments into smaller fragments and are then vacuumed out of the body.

When these medical devices were released into the market they were advertised to require less hospital recovery time and would be less invasive than traditional surgical methods. Unfortunately, it has been discovered that these power morcellator devices can inadvertently release cancer cells from uterine sarcomas inside the body.

There is currently no method available to diagnose uterine sarcoma before the surgery, putting numerous patients at risk for uterine cancer. Despite the severity of the risk, the manufacturing companies chose to omit this information from the public and medical community.

Viviana’s morcellator cancer lawsuit alleges that the company had omitted this information from the product’s label to protect its market value, and that the company had falsely advertised the power morcellator as safe.

Morcellator Cancer Lawsuits

Viviana’s morcellator cancer lawsuit has been filed with two dozen other power morcellator lawsuits, alleging similar charges against manufacturing companies. These morcellator lawsuits are currently pending in district courts throughout the United States, with legal experts calling for consolidation.

In June 2015, a motion was filed with the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML), requesting that all power morcellator lawsuits alleging undiagnosed uterine sarcoma be centralized before one judge.

Consolidating these morcellator cancer lawsuits into a multidistrict litigation would reduce the chances of duplicate discovery, lower the odds of conflicting rulings from different judges, and would further serve to the convenience of the parties.

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.