Over 250 Bard PowerPort Lawsuits Filed: Next Steps for the Litigation
Cases are still being filed in courts across the country on behalf of injured plaintiffs in the Bard PowerPort litigation. Parties are moving through discovery ahead of the July 2024 deadline to select cases to be tried as early bellwether trials.
In May 2024, lawyers met to discuss the state of the Bard PowerPort litigation currently centralized in the District of Arizona. At issue is the defective design of certain port catheter implants made and sold by Bard Access Systems, Inc., which are prone to failure and serious health complications. These devices are known as totally implantable vascular access devices (TIVADs), which are used to deliver chemotherapy and other medications directly into the blood stream. The PowerPort has two main components: an injection port site implanted in the body where a needle can be inserted, and a polyurethane/silicone catheter tube that delivers the fluid to the body.
Plaintiffs filing lawsuits in the multi-district litigation, or MDL, claim they were injured by the product. They allege that the catheter material degraded over time, leading to cracks and tiny fractures in the device—and for some, eventual breakage of the device inside the body. The device may also malfunction or migrate to other parts of the body, plaintiffs have alleged. Injured Bard PowerPort patients claim that they may have been able to avoid these life-threatening injuries had an alternative design of the device been used, or if the manufacturer had released a Bard PowerPort recall for these issues. The complications have led lead to serious injuries for many plaintiffs, including, among others:
- blood clots
- perforations of tissues, vessels, and organs
- hemorrhaging or bleeding injuries
- heart arrhythmia
- pulmonary embolism
- necrosis (tissue death)
- infections, such as sepsis
- death
These complications have precipitated more than 250 cases filed in courts across the nation. Approximately 230 cases have been filed in the Arizona MDL, with others expected to be transferred. To help manage potentially duplicative discovery efforts, two dozen bellwether cases will be selected for early trial dates. Plaintiffs and defendants are to submit their list of bellwether cases by July 1, 2024. After the 24 bellwether cases are selected, the list will be whittled down to six, with trials beginning by late 2025 or early 2026.
Contact Our Attorneys to Discuss Your Potential Bard PowerPort Claim
If you or a loved one was implanted with a Bard PowerPort that fractured, cracked, migrated, or rotated, and required medical intervention (or resulted in death) or you experienced other adverse health complications due to the device, you may be entitled to compensation.
