The widower of a woman who died of uterine cancer following surgery with a power morcellator is now suing the device’s manufacturer for his wife’s allegedly wrongful death.

Erica K. underwent a laparascopic hysterectomy to remove her uterine fibroids at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The procedure involved use of a power morcellator manufactured by the Karl Storz company. After that surgery, Erica developed uterine cancer and ultimately died in December 2013.

Erica’s surviving husband Rick now claims in the power morcellator lawsuit that his late wife’s cancer was upstaged and spread by the use of the Storz power morcellator during her hysterectomy. His morcellator cancer lawsuit names Storz, the hospital, and the surgeon as defendants.

Morcellation Cancer

A power morcellator is a device used in laparoscopic surgery to cut up and remove tissue from inside the body. By cutting the tissue into smaller pieces, a morcellator allows removal of large amounts of tissue through the smaller incisions used in laparoscopic surgery.

Morcellators have been used in gynecological surgeries such as hysterectomy or uterine fibroid surgery. Performing these procedures laparoscopically avoids many drawbacks of traditional open abdominal surgery, such as longer recovery time and a greater risk of infection.

The alleged problem with power morcellators is their potential to spread previously undetected cancer cells beyond the uterus. This action can cause the cancer to spread and upstage, significantly reducing the patient’s chances of long-term survival.

Currently, there is no reliable way to determine prior to uterine fibroid surgery whether the patient does or doesn’t have a uterine sarcoma. The FDA estimates that previously unsuspected uterine sarcomas are discovered in about one in 350 women who undergo uterine fibroid surgery.

Based on this risk and the existence of safer alternative procedures, in 2014 the FDA warned against the use of power morcellators in most uterine fibroid surgery patients. The FDA also recommended that manufacturers include a strong warning about morcellation cancer on their products’ labels and that doctors make a point of passing these warnings on directly to their patients.

Morcellator Cancer Lawsuits

Over a dozen morcellator cancer lawsuits are now underway in federal and state courts. Twenty-two plaintiffs in federal court have asked the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to consolidate their claims into a single multidistrict litigation, or MDL, before a single judge.

An MDL is a procedural device used by the federal court system when several different lawsuits based on similar allegations are filed.

The plaintiffs requesting consolidation have asked that the cases be transferred to Judge Kathryn H. Vratil of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas. They say they are unaware of any other federal morcellator cancer lawsuits in federal court, but they do expect many similar claims to be filed in the near future.

Other plaintiffs, like Rick K., are proceeding in a state court. Rick’s morcellator cancer lawsuit is pending in the Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston.