As of this time, there have been no large mass tort settlements involving IVC filters. Generally, however, large groups of settlements do not occur until such time as a few lawsuits are tried before a jury, and the manufacturer is able to more thoroughly understand its financial risk. There has, however, been at least three reported settlements in individual cases.

In March 2013, Bard settled an IVC filter case brought by plaintiff Lisa Davis, who received a G2 filter in 2006. The device fractured in 2008, migrating to her heart, resulting in ongoing health problems and making it necessary for her to take anticoagulant medications for the remainder of her life. Davis filed her complaint in 2011 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

In January 2015, Bard settled a lawsuit brought by Kelly Vlasvich, alleging her IVC filter had fragmented. One of the twelve struts of the device lodged in her heart and two in her lungs. As a result, Mrs. Vlasvich suffered “permanent and extensive disfigurement.”

In February 2015, Bard reached a settlement with plaintiff Kevin Phillips for an undisclosed amount. Phillips filed the case in June 2012, alleging that the device, which had been implanted in 2005, fractured after five years. As a result, a fragment of the filter pierced and injured his heart. The case was tried in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada. Bard reached the settlement ten days after the opening of the trial.

In August 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning on “known long-term risks associated with IVC filters,” including “lower limb deep vein thrombosis [DVT], filter fracture, filter migration, filter embolization, and IVC perforation.” This warning came after the agency had received over 900 adverse event reports involving device migration, fracturing, and injuries resulting from organ perforation. The FDA made a recommendation that filters be removed from the patient as soon as the risk of pulmonary embolism was passed.

In March 2015, Bard issued a Class 2 Device Recall for its Denali IVC Filter. The recall notice cited missing label information in the product's instructions for use concerning “patients with uncontrolled sepsis and patients with known hypersensitivity to nickel-titanium alloys.” The recall affected 1,183 units.

The inferior vena cava (IVC) is a major vein that carries blood from the lower body into the heart. An IVC filter is a spider-like wire inserted into this vein in patients who are at high risk of a pulmonary embolism (a blockage in one of the arteries in the lungs).

The IVC filter's purpose is to prevent blood clots from entering the heart, lungs, kidneys or brain by catching the clots in the bloodstream and allowing them to break down over time. The filters often are used with patients who are not able to take anticoagulant medication (drugs that help prevent blood clots).

No new trial for Bard in $4m vena cava filter loss

Becton Dickinson & Co. subsidiary C.R. Bard failed to win a new trial after a jury awarded nearly $4 million to the plaintiff in a bellwether product liability lawsuit brought over Bard’s inferior vena cava filter. Published in Mass Device - New Trial Denied

Why Did Firm Keep Selling Problem Blood-Clot Filters?

A company that made a blood-clot filter associated with 27 deaths and hundreds of problems replaced the device with a modified version that it knew had similar and potentially fatal flaws soon after it was put on the market. Confidential company records obtained by NBC News show that New Jersey-based medical device giant C.R. Bard was concerned about reports of failures for its G2 series filters, designed to replace the company's Recovery filter, within four months of being cleared to sell the G2 by the Food and Drug Administration. But instead of recalling the G2 filter, and the virtually identical G2 Express, the medical device manufacturer decided to keep them on the market for five years, until 2010, selling more than 160,000 of them. At least 12 deaths and hundreds of problems are now linked to the G2 series filters, according to Bard and FDA records. Published in NBC News - IVC Filter Blood-Clots

Did Forged Signature Clear Way for Dangerous Blood-Clot Filter?

In 2002, medical giant C.R. Bard recruited Kay Fuller, a veteran regulatory specialist, to help secure FDA clearance for its Recovery blood clot filter, after the agency had turned down a previous application. The Recovery, a one-and-a-half-inch metal trap, was designed to sit inside a major vein, the vena cava, and block blood clots from traveling to the heart or lungs, where they could be deadly. Published in NBC News - IVC Filter Forged Signature

Perforation of the IVC: rule rather than exception after longer indwelling times for the Günther Tulip and Celect retrievable filters

Bard Recovery filter: evaluation and management of vena cava limb perforation, fracture, and migration