A woman from Utah has filed a Bair Hugger warming blanket lawsuit against 3M, claiming the medical device caused her to develop a serious infection.

The Bair Hugger warming blanket has reportedly been linked to adverse health complications, including staph infections, when used during hip replacement surgery, the Bair Hugger warming blanket lawsuit alleges.

A Bair Hugger is a medical device used to warm patients before, during and after surgery. When patients undergo surgery, their body temperatures drop because of anesthesia.

The Bair Hugger warming blanket regulates the patient’s body temperature by blowing warm air through a hose into the Bair Hugger blanket, keeping the patient warm.

The blanket was developed two decades ago by Dr. Scott Augustine, a Minnesota anesthesiologist. Millions of surgery patients have been kept warm by the Bair Hugger.

However, increasing reports of serious infections have prompted a number of Bair Hugger lawsuits against the device’s manufacturer, 3M.

Bair Hugger Warming Blanket Lawsuit Allegations

One such Bair Hugger warming blanket lawsuit has been filed by plaintiff Suzanne G., who alleges the surgical warming blanket “used during the course and scope of her left total hip arthroplasty surgery” in October 2013 introduced contaminants into her open surgical wound.

Suzanne filed the Bair Hugger warming blanket lawsuit claiming she developed a a periprosthetic joint infection, also known as a deep joint infection.

According to her complaint, “the pathogen identified was coag-negative staph” and Suzanne has had to undergo multiple surgical procedures since Sept. 2014.

Suzanne’s Bair Hugger warming blanket lawsuit alleges these subsequent surgeries were necessitated by the deep joint infection that resulted from the use of the Bair Hugger warming blanket being use during her hip surgery in 2013.

She brings forth specific allegations against the device maker including failure to warn, defective design and manufacture, strict liability, breach of express warranty, and consumer fraud, among others.

Suzanne is seeking compensatory and statutory damages, along with litigation costs as well as equitable relief in the nature of disgorgement and restitution of remedy for 3M’s alleged unjust enrichment from the Bair Hugger warming blanket.

Bair Hugger Warming Blanket Lawsuits

In December 2015, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation centralized all lawsuits regarding alleged injuries and infections caused by the Bair Hugger warming blanket in Minnesota federal court.

These Bair Hugger warming blanket lawsuits are all filed by individuals who claim that use of this surgical warming blanket caused them to suffer serious infections following hip replacement or knee replacement surgery.

Plaintiffs claim that the companies 3M and the previous owner of Bair Hugger rights, Arizant Healthcare, withheld information about the risk of infection associated with these devices from the FDA and from patients.

If you or a loved one had surgery that used a Bair Hugger warming blanket and developed a staph infection or other injury, you could be eligible for compensation.

The Bair Hugger Warming Blanket Lawsuit is filed within In Re: Bair Hugger Forced Air Warming Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2666 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.