Severe Sepsis Infection Leads to Vortex Port Catheter Wrongful Death Lawsuit

Claim is set to join about 300 similar AngioDynamics port catheter lawsuits filed in federal courts nationwide, some of which will be prepared for early trial dates.

A wrongful death lawsuit alleges that an AngioDynamics Vortex port catheter implanted in a Wisconsin woman in 2022 for treatment of T-cell lymphoma ultimately contributed to her death two years later.

The complaint (PDF) was brought by Alan Haferman in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California on December 31, on behalf of himself and his late wife Joyce Haferman. It names AngioDynamics Inc. and Navilyst Medical Inc. as defendants, indicating they developed and distributed a defective port catheter that caused the development of her deadly sepsis infection.

The Vortex port is part of a broader line of AngioDynamics implants that combine an injection port with a polyurethane or silicone catheter. These devices are intended to provide physicians with long-term access for repeated drug and fluid administration during certain medical treatments. 

However, former patients allege that device failures have left them with serious and painful complications, including blood clots, infections, device migration and the need for corrective surgery.

As reports of problems have increased, port catheters from medical device manufacturers have come under scrutiny for their safety problems. This has led to a growing number of AngioDynamics port catheter lawsuits and Bard PowerPort lawsuits being pursued in the federal court system over the past year.

Haferman’s lawsuit indicates his wife was first implanted with a Vortex port catheter on April 15, 2022, for the regular administration of photopheresis to treat a rare form of T-cell lymphoma, known as mycosis fungoides syndrome.

However, in January 2022 the Wisconsin woman began to experience symptoms of an infection, which was confirmed through blood testing. This led to a sepsis diagnosis, hospitalization and removal of the Vortex port later that month.

Despite the implant removal and a prescription of antibiotics, she died on April 20, 2024 due to severe sepsis and multi-organ failure. The lawsuit indicates that before her death, Haferman suffered hemorrhage, cardiac/pericardial tamponade, cardiac arrhythmia and other symptoms similar to a heart attack.

The lawsuit, along with others involving similar port catheter failures, attributes the infection risk to microfractures in the catheter caused by alleged defects in its construction, including the use of barium sulfate. The complaint claims manufacturers were aware for years that this compound could weaken the device’s mechanical integrity. Instead of correcting the design, the lawsuit alleges AngioDynamics continued selling the product, prioritizing profits over patient safety.

Her husband presents claims of negligence, failure to warn, design defect, breach of warranty, fraudulent concealment, violation of the Wisconsin Consumer Act, and is seeking both compensatory and punitive damages.

AngioDynamics Port Catheter Lawsuits

Haferman’s complaint will join nearly 300 other AngioDynamics port catheter lawsuits filed in federal court nationwide, which have been centralized for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings in the Southern District of California under U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta.

In 2024, Judge Ohta directed the parties to select a group of 18 claims to be prepared for a series of AngioDynamics bellwether trials to help the parties see how juries may respond to evidence and testimony that could be repeated throughout the litigation.

While these early trial dates will not be binding on other port catheter claims, they could have significant influence on any potential AngioDynamics port catheter settlement negotiations. However, if the bellwether trials end without an agreement being reached, Judge Ohta may remand the cases back to their original courts for individual trial dates.

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