A couple from New York has filed a lawsuit against major medical device manufacturer C.R. Bard Incorporated and its subsidiary Bard Peripheral Vascular Incorporated, alleging severe injuries caused by a malfunctioning medical implant.
According to the lawsuit filed by plaintiffs Brenda Ann De Petris and Francis De Petris, the defendants manufactured the Bard Eclipse inferior vena cava (IVC) filter, a device Brenda had implanted on December 16, 2010. The IVC filter is designed to prevent blood clots from reaching the heart and lungs. However, according to the plaintiffs, this device was defectively designed and inadequately tested before being marketed as safe for permanent implantation. They claim that Bard's rush to market led to shortcuts in design and testing processes, resulting in devices prone to fracture, migration, tilt, and perforation—issues that allegedly caused significant harm to Brenda Ann De Petris.
The lawsuit details how Bard aggressively marketed these filters despite knowing about their defects. It accuses Bard of fraudulently misrepresenting the safety of its products both to the FDA and consumers. The plaintiffs allege that Bard falsely claimed its retrievable filters were equivalent in safety to permanent filters already on the market while failing to conduct adequate long-term safety studies. As a result of these alleged failures, Brenda Ann De Petris experienced severe complications: her filter migrated and fractured inside her body, leading to retained filter legs in her pulmonary artery and ventricular myocardium.
The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory damages for medical expenses, pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, as well as punitive damages against Bard for what they describe as willful negligence and fraudulent concealment of product risks. They argue that safer alternative designs existed but were ignored by Bard in favor of maximizing profits.
The case was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York under Case ID 1:25-cv-01437.