Bard PowerPort Lawsuits
Marketing to Bard PowerPort claimants can be difficult. CAMG handles marketing, lead generation, intake, and medical record retrieval and review, so you can focus on fighting for your clients’ rights.
Commonly known as injection ports, port-a-caths, and port-a-catheters, Bard PowerPort catheters deliver intravenous chemotherapy and autoimmune treatments. There are over 300,000 implantations of Bard PowerPort catheters annually.
Unfortunately, these catheters have inherent design and manufacturing flaws, making them prone to fracturing and moving out of position. This can cause life-threatening injuries, including cardiac punctures, blood clots, and internal vascular damage. A 2020 study revealed that 59.05% of patients with Bard PowerPort catheters experienced complications within five years of the operation.
Many people have filed product liability lawsuits against Bard PowerPort’s manufacturer, Bard Access Systems, Inc., to receive financial compensation and justice for their injuries. Defendants account for over 50 percent of U.S. implant sales. Bard PowerPort catheter product liability lawsuits argue that the manufacturer had reason to know about the problems with the Bard PowerPort catheter. Lawsuits claim Bard Access Systems, Inc. prioritized profit over patient safety and failed to warn consumers of these risks and adopt a more reliable design.
Bard PowerPort Lawsuit Updates
Here are some of the latest updates about the Bard PowerPort lawsuits:
- June 21, 2023: An increasing number of federal lawsuits have been filed against Bard PowerPoint, and all of them make similar allegations of severe complications stemming from the port catheter design. Despite this, the manufacturers are opposing the effort to consolidate these cases and have them heard by a single judge for pretrial proceedings.
- May 24, 2023: A motion was filed asking the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to combine all ten federal Bard PowerPort lawsuits into a new class action multidistrict litigation.
About Bard PowerPort
The Bard PowerPort Implantable Port is a medical device created, distributed, and sold by Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc. and C.R. Bard, subsidiaries of Becton, Dickinson, and Company. Designed to facilitate repeated access to a patient’s vascular system, the Bard PowerPort is surgically inserted under the skin so it stays inside the patient. Medical professionals can use the Bard PowerPort to deliver blood products, intravenous fluids, medication, and nutrition directly into the bloodstream.
The Bard PowerPort is comprised of a polyurethane catheter and an injection port. Medical professionals can administer medication by inserting needles into the raised center of the injection port. The medication will then flow through a flexible tube — the catheter — and enter the patient’s bloodstream.
Chronoflex AL
Chronoflex AL is the polyurethane material that makes up Bard PowerPort’s catheter. Many lawsuits claim that several flaws in the chemical design and manufacturing of Chronoflex AL caused the Bard PowerPort to be weaker and less durable than it otherwise would have been.
These suits argue that the barium sulfate in ChronoFlex AL dissociates from the surface of the catheter, causing microfractures and other structural changes that weaken the catheter. They also argue the manufacturer of Chronoflex AL used an excessively high concentration of barium sulfate particles during production, forming air pockets and barium sulfate throughout the catheter body.
These manufacturing issues caused the catheter surface to become rough with cracks, pits, and fissures. These defects elevate the possibility of harmful fungi and microbes building up and spreading in the catheter, significantly increasing the risk of infection and sepsis.
Hernia Mesh Lawsuits
C.R. Bard, another subsidiary of Becton, Dickinson, and Company, is a defendant in thousands of product liability hernia mesh lawsuits. A hernia mesh is a medical device made from animal sources or synthetic materials that help support damaged or weakened tissues in the human body. Some meshes are absorbable or temporary, while others remain in the body as permanent implants.
These product liability lawsuits allege that hernia meshes were defective and caused patients to develop severe injuries, such as inflammation, long-term infections, and slow-healing wounds.
Bard PowerPort Related Complications and Injuries
According to the Bard PowerPort product liability lawsuits, Bard PowerPort catheters have caused various complications and injuries.
- Infections: People with Bard catheters may get infections when bacteria enter the damaged or degraded areas of the PowerPort. Common symptoms of a catheter infection include confusion, drainage or pus, swelling and inflammation, and fever.
- Catheter fracture: Pieces of the plastic tubing can break away and enter the patient’s cardiovascular system, leading to potentially life-threatening complications, such as hematomas, blood clots, pulmonary embolism, and deep vein thrombosis.
- Catheter migration: This happens when the catheter inserted into the body or blood vessel moves from its original position. It can lead to severe health consequences, including organ damage, obstruction of blood flow, infection, vascular damage, and catheter failure.
Bard Liability
According to the Bard PowerPort product liability lawsuits, Bard knew about the PowerPort’s problems before the lawsuits were filed against it. They also claim Bard continued to actively and aggressively market the catheter as safe, despite its knowledge of numerous reports of catheter fracture, migration, infections, and other potentially life-threatening complications.
Lawsuits claim Bard is liable for causing injuries that would not have happened if it had:
- Warned consumers about the Bard PowerPort’s potential risks
- Altered the design of the Bard PowerPort to make it safer
- Stopped marketing the device as safe once it was aware of its risks
Bard PowerPort Lawsuits
Bard PowerPort lawsuits were mostly filed in 2022 and 2023. Examples include the following:
- Christopher Cabello filed a lawsuit on May 18, 2023, on behalf of his deceased wife, Elizabeth, who used a Bard Groshong MRI implantable injection PowerPort in September 2020 to receive bladder cancer treatments.
- Jean Cunningham filed a Bard PowerPort lawsuit on April 24, 2023, claiming the device’s defective design caused it to crack while she was receiving multiple sclerosis treatment. She argued the Bard PowerPort fracturing caused her to develop an infection, leading to permanent injuries.
- Patrice Terry filed a lawsuit on February 10, 2023, alleging that Becton, Dickinson, and Company sold an unreasonably dangerous implantable catheter port device and that she developed severe infections, blood clots, and other injuries after her Bard PowerPort failed.
Despite their differences, these Bard PowerPort lawsuits have three main components:
- Bard’s negligent failure to provide adequate warnings
- Bard’s negligent design of the PowerPort
- Strict liability based on a manufacturing defect
Lawsuit Eligibility
People hurt by Bard PowerPort catheters may be eligible to file a lawsuit if they or a family member:
- Used a Bard PowerPort catheter
- Experienced an injury linked to the failure of the Bard PowerPort catheter
For example, a victim may be eligible to file a lawsuit if they used a Bard PowerPort catheter to receive chemotherapy drugs and developed sepsis due to a catheter fracture. A lawsuit can also be filed if a loved one used a Bard PowerPort catheter for nutrition and developed organ damage that resulted in death.
Let CAMG Help You Market to Bard PowerPort Claimants
If you are a lawyer or law firm looking to sign Bard PowerPort clients, contact Consumer Attorney Marketing Group. CAMG is a full-service advertising agency connecting lawyers with potential plaintiffs through traditional media, digital marketing, and public relations.
We work exclusively with plaintiff law firms. We help law firms by developing and executing the right legal marketing strategy to help them achieve their desired outcomes.
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