Texas plaintiff Denise O. is suing C.R. Bard, alleging their IVC filter product is an unreasonably dangerous medical product that caused permanent damage to her heart. Denise claims that in direct result of using their inferior vena cava (IVC) filter, she suffered severe cardiac complications.

What is an IVC Filter?

IVC filters
were first introduced to the market in the 1960s in order to prevent blood clots that formed in the legs from traveling to the patient’s heart. When these devices catch the blood clots in the patient’s body, the blood clots are kept in place until they dissolve. This prevents many thrombosis injuries such as heart attack and other cardiovascular attacks.

Patients either have the option of a temporary or permanent IVC filter to be implemented into the inferior vena cava.  The inferior vena cava is a vein in the human body that returns blood to the heart from the lower portions of the body. Unfortunately, this vein is where traveling blood clots often form and can cause potentially fatal complications in patients.

While both permanent and temporary IVC filters are effective preventative measures, medical experts are becoming increasingly wary of the temporary models, such as the defendant’s. Experts are concerned that because these IVC filters were only made for short-term treatments, and have been allegedly of lower quality compared to their counterparts, they may cause potentially life-threatening complications.

IVC Filter Allegations

After medical device manufacturers started producing temporary IVC filters in 2003, a number of injury reports from patients indicated dangerous IVC filter complications. These devices were meant to be removed soon after the blood clot resolved itself, but have been reportedly causing problems for patients who leave them in for too long.

This was the case for Plaintiff Denise O., whose IVC filter complications started when she underwent surgery in November 2009 to have Bard’s G2 Filter System temporarily implanted.

While she initially reacted well to the procedure, she had to undergo emergency surgery when the device began causing her problems. In May 2012, Denise began experiencing cardiac complications after a shard of the IVC filter had fractured off and perforated her vena cava migrated and embedded itself into her heart.

According to diagnostic image testing, not only had two struts of the IVC filter broken off and migrated but that the device was tilted, continuously perforating her vena cava. To fix this complication, Denise underwent multiple medical procedures to have one of the pieces removed from her heart, but she continues to suffer from the other strut. Due to its location between her aorta and spine, physicians declared the surgical area too risky to perform the removal operation.

Due to the unexpected IVC filter complications, Denise will continue to suffer pain and hefty medical expenses, and will require continuous medical monitoring.

Bard had allegedly known about this IVC filter complication for some time, as they started receiving numerous adverse event reports since they released the G2 Filter in 2003. The IVC filter complications mentioned on these injury reports include death, hemorrhage, cardiac arrhythmia, and severe pain.

Therefore, Denise is filing legal action for allegedly concealing this vital safety information from her. Her lawyers stated that Bard had the civil responsibility of warning their client and other IVC filter patients of all possible side effects associated with their product. Denise insists that she never would have used Bard’s IVC filter, if she had known about the possibility of device perforation and embedment.

So for being allegedly responsible for manufacturing, selling, distributing, and marketing a dangerous product, Denise is suing C.R. Bard. The charges include: negligence, false advertising, concealing information, and misrepresenting a product.

The Bard IVC filter lawsuit is Case No. 2:15-cv-00316, in the U.S. District Court of Southern Texas, Corpus Christi Division.