IVC Filter Injury Jury Reaches Verdict for Plaintiff, Bard to Pay $3.6 Million in Damages

A federal jury in Arizona has returned a verdict of $2 million in compensatory damages and another $2 million in punitive damages for a woman whose IVC blood filter broke inside her body, causing her to undergo open heart surgery for her survival. As reported by Law360, the jury found that vein filter manufacturer C.R. Bard had negligently failed to warn the plaintiff and doctors of the device’s problems despite numerous reports of IVC-filter-caused complications.

The jury’s assessment included a finding that 20% of the fault in the case was attributable to radiology errors, after a radiologist “failed to flag a visibly separated filter piece on an X-ray in 2009, before Booker’s injuries developed to the point where she needed open-heart surgery.” The remaining 80% of compensatory liability fell to Bard, such that its share of the total damages due the plaintiff is $3.6 million. Despite Bard’s arguments to the contrary, the jury also found that the surgeon who was only partially able to remove pieces of the broken IVC filter from the plaintiff’s body was not a cause of her injuries.

Multidistrict aggregate litigation that includes over 3,600 other plaintiffs injured by IVC filters they claim are defective and dangerous will continue as a small group of test cases, called “bellwethers,” will proceed over the next several months. These sample cases are intended to assess the strength and ultimate value of the multitude of injured patient claims.

National Plaintiff Injury Lawyers

Lieff Cabraser represents injured patients across the U.S. and families whose loved ones died in a IVC filter injury cases. The devices, intended only for temporary use, were often left permanently in patients, exposing them to blood clots, hemorrhages, heart attacks, and other life-threatening injuries. If you or a loved one have been injured by an IVC filter, you may be eligible to file a claim and seek compensation for your medical care, both past and expected, your past and future lost earnings and loss of earnings capacity, and compensation for pain and suffering, mental anguish, and physical impairment.

Please visit our IVC Filter Injuries case page today or call us toll-free at 1 800 541-7358 for a free, prompt, no-obligation evaluation of your case.