When she was undergoing a laparoscopic hysterectomy to remove uterine fibroids using a device called a power morcellator, defects in the device spread cancer throughout a California woman’s body, according to a morcellation cancer lawsuit

The morcellation lawsuit was filed against Richard Wolf Medical Instruments Corporation, maker of the Wolf Power Morcellator.

Sarah Salem-Robinson and her husband Alan filed the power morcellator lawsuit in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. In her morcellation cancer lawsuit, Salem-Robinson claims that she underwent supracervical hysterectomy surgery at the Kaiser Santa Clara Medical Center on May 18, 2012. Before the surgery, her doctors reportedly had not discovered that one of the fibroid tumors in her uterus contained cancerous leiomyoscarcoma cells. The Wolf Power Morcellator was used in her fibroid removal surgery, according to the morcellator cancer lawsuit, and the cancerous cells were spread by the device through her peritoneal cavity.

After the surgery, Salem-Robinson claims in the morcellation lawsuit, she was diagnosed with metastatic cancer. Since then she has developed four small lesions on her lungs, potential signs of leiomyoscarcoma cancer. She accuses Wolf of negligence, strict product liability, breach of warranty, and fraud.

The makers of power morcellators, medical devices used during some laparoscopic surgeries that permit doctors to cut uterine fibroid into tiny pieces and remove them through a small incision in the patient’s abdomen, are facing increasing numbers morcellation cancer lawsuits. The devices are meant to allow doctors to perform minimally invasive surgeries to remove uterine fibroids. However, risks may be associated with their use that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) did not recognize when approving the devices.

In April, the FDA warned doctors to avoid using power morcellators for fibroid removal, because they learned that about one of every 350 women who undergo laparoscopic hysterectomy or uterine fibroid removal might have undiagnosed cancerous sarcoma cells. Because there is no reliable manner to diagnose the cancerous cells before the surgery is performed, the agency warned that the use of power morcellators carries an unreasonable risk of spreading the cancer.

The Morcellation Cancer Lawsuit is Sarah Salem-Robinson and Alan Robinson v. Wolf Medical Instruments Corporation, Case No. 5:14-cv-02209, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.