Cordis Corp., a medical device manufacturer based in Miami Lakes faces several lawsuits in Florida. A law firm in Boca Raton is handling the suits, which allege that the company’s vascular filters caused people injury and even death. At the moment, the firm is handling three lawsuits located in the Palm Beach Circuit Court against Cordis, formerly an affiliate of Johnson & Johnson that was divested to Cardinal Health Inc. in 2015 for around $2 billion. There are yet another 21 pending cases against the company in California.
Why is Cordis Being Sued?
Cordis is only one of a few companies facing lawsuits that claim its IVC filters caused injury by puncturing veins and traveling to other areas of the body, thereby causing damage to organs as well as other medical problems.
Cook Medical, a company based in Indiana, and Bard Medical Division, based in Georgia, both face around 5,800 lawsuits related to their IVC filters in federal court. Cases have been combined into two class action suits, resulting in Cook’s case to take place in Indiana and Bard’s in Arizona.
Cordis specifically manufactures the TrapEase Vena Cava Filter, which was made to prevent potentially fatal blood clots from developing in the lungs and heart. The device is made of nickel titanium alloy and includes a double basket that is meant to capture clots traveling through the inferior vena cava, a vein that transports blood to the lungs and heart from the legs. The filter was approved by the Food and Drug Administration because it was said to prevent deaths stemming from thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. However, the lawsuits, which continuously pile up, allege that there are defects in the device that place patients in danger. The plaintiffs in this case are claiming that the treatment is worse than the disease.
Tragic Results Using A Cordis Filter
The latest lawsuit in the Florida cases claims that the death of Martino Convertino, a New Jersey resident, was caused by a defect in the design of Cordis’ device and that the company engaged in deceptive marketing that didn’t warn the public of the risks associated with using the product.
Convertino got a TrapEase IVC filter implant at 68 years old in October 2012. In March 2016, he checked into an emergency room at a New Jersey hospital after experiencing problems like severe back pain and lightheadedness. He later died from a thrombosis.
Lawyers for the plaintiff claim that the mechanism that anchors the filter deteriorates over time and therefore, fails. As a result, they allege, the device can get loose and end up floating in the body, which can interfere with blood flow and fail to catch clots as it is meant to do.
In Convertino’s case, the filter became displaced and punctured his vena cava vein, which led to bleeding and clotting.
The lawsuit cites negligence, product liability, negligent misrepresentation and manufacturing defect, just to name four issues with the product. Cordis would not comment about the cases.
The lawsuits across the country are a huge step taken against the companies that manufacture IVC filters that fail to protect patients and put them at even greater risk of injury or death.
Learn more about Medical Device Lawsuits.