A New York woman who sued Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon for product liability and negligence for manufacturing a device that causes female cancers to spread has died.

Brenda Leuzzi, 44, passed away just more than two years after finding out a power morcellator used in a gynecologic surgery spread cancer cells throughout her body, according to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.

The morcellator, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has since discouraged surgeons from using, shreds uterine tissue so it can be removed through laparoscopic incisions, providing for a less invasive surgery.

Brenda and her husband, George Leuzzi, alleged that Brenda Leuzzi’s stage 4 uterine cancer was a direct result of the morcellation surgery.

Brenda Leuzzi had a robot-assisted hysterectomy with uterine morcellation in September 2012 at University of Rochester Medical Center. She opted for the procedure after suffering severe bleeding episodes caused by uterine fibroids, according to her morcellation cancer lawsuit. She received the cancer diagnosis after the surgery.

Before the surgery, doctors did not know the fibroids were cancerous as there is no definitive pre-surgical test to determine whether fibroids are benign, according to the Democrat & Chronicle.

“They took a tumor that was at a low stage and morcellated it, and now she’s at a high stage.” George Leuzzi said after the couple filed their morcellation cancer lawsuit against Ethicon.

The Leuzzis’ lawsuit accuses Ethicon of knowing of the morcellator’s risks but failing to warn patients and their doctors about them.

One in 350 women who undergo a robotic hysterectomy or myomectomy (the removal of uterine fibroids) are diagnosed with uterine sarcoma. There are some 50,000 women annually who undergo hysterectomy morcellation surgery.

Uterine fibroids are noncancerous growths of the uterus that often appear during childbearing years. They are not associated with an increased risk of uterine cancer and almost never develop into cancer, according to the Mayo Clinic.

While the morcellator itself does not cause cancer, the blades can spread cancer cells.

Earlier this year, the FDA issued a safety advisory that morcellation surgery may cause the spread of unsuspected cancerous tissue outside the uterus. A decision from the FDA is pending regarding whether the morcellation surgery will be banned.

Class action lawsuit lawyers are currently seeking women who were diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma (LMS), uterine sarcoma or other cancer within two years after their initial surgery to remove fibroids, the uterus, ovaries or fallopian tubes

Brenda Leuzzi testified over the summer before an FDA panel of doctors about her experience. She told the panel she had undergone numerous pre-op tests to check for the disease and doctors assured her she didn’t have it.

In addition to her husband, Brenda Leuzzi is survived by a toddler. George Leuzzi vowed to carry on the fight to have morcellation surgery banned.

“She fought like nobody else I’ve ever seen fight,” George Leuzzi said. “If she had any choice in this matter, she’d be alive today. She fought that hard. But unfortunately the cancer just took too much from her.”