Nearly 4,000 Bard PowerPort Lawsuits Are Awaiting Outcome of Upcoming Bellwether Trials

Second in a series of Bard PowerPort bellwether trials is scheduled to begin on August 18, testing claims that the port catheter device is defectively designed and prone to failure.

With the start of the next bellwether trial just days away, the makers of Bard PowerPort systems now face more than 3,700 product liability lawsuits claiming the port catheter implants are defectively designed and prone to fail, break and send debris into the bloodstream.

Port catheters are subdermal implants that consist of a small injection port and a polyurethane catheter. These devices give doctors access to patients’ veins without the need for repeated needle sticks, and are often implanted in patients who will require regular drug or fluid injections, such as those going through chemotherapy treatment.

Although Bard PowerPort devices have been marketed as safe and effective, a growing number of port catheter lawsuits have been filed in recent years alleging the devices contain manufacturing and design defects that may cause users to suffer devastating health consequences, such as infections, pulmonary embolisms, blood clots and death.

To help lawyers gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony likely to be repeated throughout the Bard PowerPort lawsuits, a series of test cases have been set for trial this year, which are being closely watched and may have a substantial impact on any future settlement negotiations.

Bard PowerPort MDL

Given common questions of fact and law raised in the claims, all federal Bard PowerPort Lawsuits have consolidated into a multidistrict litigation (MDL) since August 2023, when the cases were centralized before U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell in the District of Arizona to oversee discovery and pretrial proceedings.

Over the past three years, Judge Campbell has been preparing the litigation for bellwether trials involving six representative cases. These trials are intended to provide a preview of how juries are likely to weigh evidence, argument and testimony that would be repeated in numerous other port catheter claims.

The first bellwether trial was held earlier this year, ending in a defense verdict. However, the plaintiff has filed a motion for mistrial, arguing the jury was given faulty and prejudicial instructions.

Second Bard PowerPort Bellwether Trial

The second Bard PowerPort bellwether trial is scheduled to begin on August 18. The lawsuit, involving claims by Kimberly Divelbliss, is one of 3,734 claims folded into the MDL to date, according to an August 3 report (PDF) by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML).

Divelbliss, of New Mexico, filed her complaint in 2022 indicating that she was implanted with a PowerPort port catheter in July 2017. Less than two years later she had to undergo emergency surgery to have the device removed.  

During the procedure, doctors discovered the Bard PowerPort’s polyurethane catheter had broken, resulting in seven inches of catheter detaching inside Divelbliss’ body, with part of it becoming lodged in the right side of her heart.

The outcome of the trial over Divelbliss’s claims will not be binding on other Bard PowerPort lawsuits. However, the results will be closely watched by both sides to see what types of verdicts juries hand down and what kind of payouts Bard may be ordered to pay plaintiffs. Those outcomes could form the basis of a Bard PowerPort lawsuit settlement agreement.

However, if the bellwether trials end without a settlement or other resolution to the litigation, Judge Campbell is likely to begin remanding individual cases back to their originating districts for separate trial dates over the next few years.

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