6 Bard PowerPort Lawsuits Selected for Bellwether Trials in Federal MDL

Lawsuits involve a variety of different Bard PowerPort injuries, including port catheter fractures, infections and other complications, to gauge how juries may respond in other claims.

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all federal Bard PowerPort lawsuits has identified the six cases that will serve as early test cases, involving evidence and testimony regarding port catheter injuries similar to those being presented in more than 1,400 other product liability lawsuits being pursued against C.R. Bard and Becton Dickinson.

Each of the claims raise similar allegations that the companies sold unreasonably dangerous and defective port catheter devices in recent years, which contained design defects that resulted in infections, implant fractures, migration injuries and other complications.

The Bard PowerPort, also known as a totally implantable vascular access device (TIVAD), is used to deliver drugs and other medications directly into a patient’s bloodstream. It includes an injection port site where the needle is inserted, and a polyurethane catheter tube that delivers the fluids to the patient’s body.

While the Bard port catheters were sold as safe and effective products, each of the lawsuits allege that the catheter material is prone to degrade and fracture inside the body, potentially resulting in the need for revision surgery to remove the failed device.

Given common questions of fact and law raised in complaints brought in federal courts nationwide, all Bard PowerPort lawsuits have been consolidated in the District of Arizona as part of an MDL, or multidistrict litigation, where U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell is presiding over coordinated discovery and  pretrial proceedings.

To help the parties evaluate how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony likely to be repeated throughout the litigation, Judge Campbell previously established a “bellwether” process, where the parties will prepare a small group of representative claims for early trial dates.

In December 2023, the parties selected a group of 24 Bard PowerPort bellwether lawsuits, which have been undergoing limited discovery. That list was later narrowed down to 15 bellwether prospects, which have gone through more specific preparations over the last several months.

On May 12, Judge Campbell issued a case management order (PDF), announcing the selection of six cases that will be eligible for the first bellwether trials, along with one additional alternate. The parties had submitted six of their own choices, but the judge rejected three of them as not being representative enough of the entire litigation, and replaced them with three choices of his own.

“These six cases satisfy the initial criteria identified by the Court as most representative and proportional: (a) three infection cases, two thrombus cases, and one fracture case; (b) four polyurethane cases, one Groshong case, and one silicone case; and (c) one surgery case,” Judge Campbell wrote.

Bard PowerPort Lawsuit Bellwether Selections

The selected cases include claims brought by Wanda Miller, Robert Cook, Judy Hicks, Kimberly Divelbliss, May Lattanzio, Lloyd Sorensen, with a lawsuit by Peter James chosen as an alternate.

Miller filed her complaint (PDF) in March 2024, indicating she suffered thrombosis injuries from a Bard PowerPort, which was implanted in January 2021.

Cook’s lawsuit (PDF) was filed in September 2023, who received his port catheter during a chemotherapy procedure at the Mayo Clinic in August 2022. Just days later, the Bard PowerPort had to be surgically removed after it caused Cook to develop an infection. In addition to the additional surgery, Cook also suffered cardiac tamponade injuries.

The third lawsuit, filed by Hicks (PDF) in June 2023, indicates she was implanted with a PowerPort in February 2021, but began suffering from fevers, linked to infections stemming from the implant, within a month of the procedure. After being diagnosed with neutropenia and a staph infection, the device was surgically removed in August 2022.

All three of those claims were chosen by the parties. Judge Campbell provided his own reasoning for selecting the remaining four cases, indicating Divelbliss (PDF), who filed her case in August 2022, representing fracture cases where plaintiffs say the catheter failure was caused by a defect that resulted in the catheter being pinched off. He indicates Lattanzio’s claim (PDF) was chosen because it was an infection case linked to silicone failure, and Sorenson’s lawsuit (PDF) was chosen as representative of the large number of polyurethane catheter infection cases. Sorensen also underwent six weeks of hospitalization and the lawsuit seeks “meaningful damages,” Judge Campbell noted.

The alternate claim, filed by James (PDF), involves intravenous retrieval of a fragment that fractured off of a PowerPort, which represents cases dealing with fractures and surgery.

Although the outcomes of these early bellwether trials will not have any binding impact on other claims pending in the MDL or state courts, they will be closely watched by lawyers involved in the litigation and the average jury awards are expected to have a major impact on future Bard PowerPort lawsuit settlement negotiations.

However, if the bellwether trials do not result in a Bard PowerPort settlement agreement, all of those lawsuits could be remanded back to their originating court districts for hundreds of individual trial dates.