A medical device designed to catch blood clots in the body’s largest vein before they can travel to the lungs is now the subject of hundreds of lawsuits claiming the blood clot filter device broke or otherwise malfunctioned, causing serious harm and even death.

One of these lawsuits was filed by a Colorado man.  Plaintiff Jeffrey W. brought forth claims against blood clot filter manufacturer C.R. Bard after experiencing alleged blood clot filter injuries.

According to Jeffrey’s blood clot filter lawsuit, he received Bard’s G2 Vena Cava Filter in April 2009, but suffered from serious blood clot filter complications.

Jeffrey is not alone in his claims that Bard’s blood clot filter devices pose a severe risk of injury and complications, including device migration, organ perforation, of fracture of the device.

Hundreds of other blood clot filter recipients have filed claims against Bard and other blood clot filter manufactures, citing similar experiences.

What is a Blood Clot Filter?

An blood clot filter (also known as an IVC filter)  is a medical device inserted into the inferior vena cava, a large vein that carries blood from the lower body back to the heart. The IVC is located in back of the abdomen and runs alongside the spine.

When blood clots form in the deep veins in the legs, known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT), it can interrupt the circulatory system process of pumping blood from the heart to the lungs and back.

If a clot forms, it can break loose and may travel up through the inferior vena cava back to the heart and then to the lungs, where they get stuck and block blood flow. This potentially fatal condition is known as a pulmonary embolism, a sudden blockage of a major artery in the lung.

The blood clot filter is designed to catch the clots before they can travel to the lungs and cause a pulmonary embolism. These filters are primarily used for patients who have repeated DVT despite the use of blood thinners, or in those who cannot take blood thinners for medical reasons.

Reported Blood Clot Filter Complications

Numerous problems associated with the filters have been reported and in August of 2010 the FDA issued a safety communication listing several types of blood clot filter complications, including:

• Device migration
• Detachment of device parts, which then moved through the vein to other locations
• IVC perforation (being pierced by the blood clot filter)
• Fracture of the blood clot filter

The FDA also expressed its concern that the filters, which are designed to be retrievable, were being left in place too long.

The agency recommended that doctors consider removing the blood clot filter as soon as the need for protection from a pulmonary embolism is no longer needed.

The problem with that is that the longer a blood clot filter is left in place, the more difficult it becomes to remove.

Blood Clot Filter Lawsuit: Multidistrict Litigation

In many cases, those who have filed a blood clot filter lawsuit will be grouped together with other similar cases in what is known as multidistrict litigation (MDL).

Instead of trying each blood clot filter lawsuit separately, multidistrict litigation brings all the cases before one judge to avoid having conflicting pretrial rulings and to conserve resources of both plaintiffs and defendants in the discovery process.

The MDL process gives both sides a chance to see how courts and juries view the evidence.

In August of 2015, cases against C.R. Bard and other blood clot filter makers were transferred to the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. Currently, there are 527 blood clot filter lawsuits currently pending in the consolidated litigation.

If you or someone you know has been injured by a blood clot filter or are facing the threat of adverse effects resulting from the implantation of a blood clot filter, you may have grounds to file a blood clot filter lawsuit.

Jeffrey’s Blood Clot Filter Lawsuit is filed within the larger multidistrict litigation In Re Bard IVC Filters Product Liabilty Litigation, MDL 2641, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.