Greenfield IVC Filter Lawsuit Filed Over Vena Cava Perforation Injury

A product liability lawsuit filed against Boston Scientific alleges that a Maryland woman experienced complications with a Greenfield IVC blood clot filter, indicating that the device migrated out of position and perforated her vena cava. 

The complaint (PDF) was filed pro se by Monica Jeffries in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Maryland on November 16, indicating that she received a Greenfield filter sometime before 2004, and has suffered a number of health problems ever since.

The Greenfield filter is an inferior vena cava (IVC) filter that is typically implanted as a permanent treatment for individuals at risk of pulmonary embolism, designed to prevent blood clots from traveling to the lungs.

Jeffries filed the complaint in her own name, without an attorney representing her, indicating that she has suffered shortness of breath, severe pain, severe weight loss, confusion asthma and other health impacts since receiving the Greenfield IVC filter.

As a result of the problems, Jeffries indicates that she underwent a number of medical tests to find the cause, but it was not until February 2015 that she discovered her blood clot filter had migrated out of position and pierced her vena cava, the lawsuit states.

Jeffries is pursuing claims against Boston Scientific, alleging that the manufacturer knew about the potential Greenfiled IVC filter risks, yet failed to warn the medical community.

“Despite having knowledge as early as 2004 of the unreasonably dangerous and defective nature of the product, the defendants consciously disregarded the known risks and continued to actively market and offer for sale the Greenfield filters,” the lawsuit states.

IVC Filter Lawsuits Over Retrievable Designs

The lawsuit raises similar claims to those brought in a growing number of IVC filter lawsuits filed over newer products introduced in recent years, which are designed to be retrievable and removed once the risk of a pulmonary embolism has passed.

There are hundreds of Bard G2 filter lawsuits, Bard Recovery filter lawsuits and Cook Select and Gunther Tulip filter lawsuits pending throughout the federal court system involving these retrievable designs, indicating that the devices are prone to move out of position, puncture the vena cava or fracture, potentially sending small metal pieces into the heart or lungs.

In August 2010, the FDA issued an alert about the risk of problems with removable IVC filters, indicating that the agency had received more than 900 adverse event reports at that time.

Amid continuing reports of IVC filters failing, with the struts or legs fracturing or puncturing the vena cava, the FDA issued another warning in May 2014, urging doctors to remove IVC filters within about one to two months after the risk of a pulmonary embolism has passed.

In October 2014, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) established consolidated pretrial proceedings in the federal court system for all IVC filter lawsuits filed against Cook Medical involving their retrievable designs, centralizing the cases before U.S. District Judge Richard L. Young in the Southern District of Indiana, where a small group of representative cases are being prepared for early trial dates that will begin late next year.

Similar consolidated proceedings were established earlier this year for all IVC filter cases against C.R. Bard, centralizing the cases before U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell in the District of Arizona to reduce the risk of duplicative discovery into common issues in the cases, avoid conflicting rulings from different judges and to serve the convenience of the parties, witnesses and the courts.