IVC Filter Lawsuits Moving Forward In Court. The inferior vena cava (IVC) filter is a medical device intended to prevent pulmonary embolism. The filter is a small, cage-like device that is implanted in the largest blood vessel in the body, the IVC.
The filter is implanted just below the kidneys, and its purpose is to trap blood clots that may travel up that vein causing serious health problems, reports The Ring of Fire Network.
In the retrievable filter, there is a risk of breakage and migration that may lead to an anaphylactic immunology reaction, as well as the danger of puncture to organs.
Retrievable Filters Causing Death
In 2002, NBC News investigated C.R. Bard, one of the big manufacturers of IVC filters, and reported several deaths resulting from the retrievable filters. The filters were not taken off the market, but continued to be marketed and sold leaving some with the impression that “profits were put ahead of human health and that marketers were actually in charge rather than the scientists being in charge.”
IVC filters are meant to be a temporary solution and it is recommended that they not remain implanted longer than two months. The FDA says they should be removed as soon as the threat of a pulmonary embolism has passed, yet, the “medical manufacturers continue to tell doctors that retrieval is optional,” reports The Ring of Fire Network.
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