A woman has filed a products liability lawsuit in Indiana federal court alleging adverse effects and complications suffered after she was implanted with a Cook IVC filter.

Florida plaintiff Jaclyn B. is filing this Cook IVC filter lawsuit against the product’s manufacturer, Cook Medical. The product in question is the Gunther Tulip Vena Cava Filter.

Jaclyn says she was implanted with the device in Memorial Hospital in 2007. Her complaint raises claims for strict products liability, failure to warn, negligence, breach of warranty, and violation of Florida consumer protection laws.

Cook IVC Filter Lawsuit Joins Others in MDL

Jaclyn’s claim is filed as part of a large multidistrict litigation, or MDL, centered on allegations that IVC filters made by Cook cause patients to suffer adverse effects and complications in excess of what they were led to expect from the warnings and other IVC filter information provided by the manufacturing company.

The MDL is a group of several Cook IVC filter lawsuits collected into a single judicial process to help expedite and facilitate processing of these lawsuits.

An IVC filter, or inferior vena cava fliter, is implanted to help prevent any injuries and adverse effects that may result from blood clots. These include complications such a pulmonary embolism. A pulmonary embolism is the condition in which one or more arteries in the lungs becomes blocked by a blood clot.

Clots that form in the lower part of the body could also find their way through the bloodstream to the brain, where they could cause a stroke.

Anticoagulant medication is frequently prescribed to prevent blood clot complications like these. For patients who can’t or won’t take anticoagulants, the use of an IVC filter is an alternative treatment.

The IVC filter is a small, basket-like that becomes implanted into a patient’s inferior vena cava. This is a large vein located in the human body that carries deoxygenated blood from the body’s lower extremity back up to the heart and lungs for replenishment.

Once in place, an IVC filter functions like a wire strainer, catching blood clots and holding them in place while the blood flowing around them gradually dissolves them.

However, plaintiffs in the Cook IVC filter MDL claim they have suffered dangerous IVC filter complications. For example, some serious conditions that have occurred include an IVC filter that has purportedly tilted out of position or migrated out of its initial implantation place. An out-of-place filter may puncture the vena cava and nearby organs.

In addition, some IVC filter devices have also come apart or fractured. This may leave parts of an IVC filter drifting freely within the patient’s bloodstream. Fragments of an IVC filter could then find their way inside the heart or lungs, where they can do life-threatening damage.

Plaintiffs like Jaclyn assert that Cook failed to adequately warn them of these alleged complications and adverse effects that may come about with the device’s implantation.

Jaclyn’s Cook IVC Filter Lawsuit is Case No. 1:17-cv-03447-JMS-MJD, in the U.S District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Indianapolis Division. The Cook IVC Filter MDL is In re: Cook Medical, Inc, IVC Filters Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2570, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.