An Alabama woman says she suffered a severe postoperative infection due to use of the 3M Bair Hugger blanket.

Plaintiff Diane F. says that in September 2014 she underwent total knee revision surgery, during which she was kept warm using a Bair Hugger forced air warming system made by defendant 3M.

She says she later developed a periprosthetic joint infection. Treatment of that infection required four additional surgeries between April and September 2015 to remove her knee implant, repair the damage caused by the infection, and replace the implant with a new prosthesis.

Diane now alleges her infection resulted directly from the use of the 3M Bair Hugger blanket during her initial surgery.

The Bair Hugger Forced Air Warming System

The Bair Hugger forced air warming system is a device used to keep patients warm during surgery. The system uses a portable heater and blower mechanism to warm air and direct it through a flexible hose to a blanket that is draped next to the patient’s body. Vents in the blanket distribute the air around the patient’s body, keeping the patient warm.

Diane’s Bair Hugger lawsuit is one of many others like it that have been brought together in a federal court in Minnesota as a single multidistrict litigation, or MDL.

Plaintiffs: 3M Bair Hugger Blanked Increases Risk of Infection

According to the MDL’s master long form complaint, the problem with the 3M Bair Hugger blanket originates in the way it disturbs the normal downward air flow designed into operating rooms.

Plaintiffs say the system’s blower unit drives contaminants from near the floor of the operating room up to the operating table. From there, they can find their way into the open surgical wound on the patient’s body, increasing the odds of a postoperative infection, the plaintiffs say.

Plaintiffs also allege the blower unit’s air filtration system is inadequate to prevent contaminants from entering the system. They say scientific studies have shown that pathogens are able to get past the filter and colonize inside the device.

Positioning the heater-blower unit on the floor of the operating room only worsens the problem, the plaintiffs say, because it allows the unit to take in contaminants that have fallen to the operating room’s floor.

The plaintiffs claim that defendant 3M has known for “over two decades” about the risk of spreading contaminants associated with the 3M Bair Hugger blanket. Despite knowing about this problem, 3M “actively and aggressively marketed the Bair Hugger as safe in both general and orthopedic surgeries,” the plaintiffs claim.

In her own Bair Hugger lawsuit, Diane is raising claims for negligence, strict liability for failure to warn and for defective design and manufacture, breaches of express and implied warranties, violation of Minnesota and Alabama consumer protection laws, negligent and fraudulent misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, and unjust enrichment.

She seeks an award of compensatory and statutory damages, restitution and disgorgement, and reimbursement of attorneys’ fees and court costs.

Diane’s 3M Bair Hugger Blanket Lawsuit is Case No. 0:16-cv-03574, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. The Bair Hugger MDL is In re: Bair Hugger Forced Air Warming Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 15-2666, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.