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If you have been injured by an IVC filter, there is a good chance that it was produced by Cook, which has been one of the largest manufacturers of the devices since they first appeared on the market in the 2000s. The Chicago IVC filter attorneys of Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC specialize in medical device liability cases and can assist you in collecting the compensation that you deserve to cover your medical bills and out of pocket expenses. You can find more information about the devices produced by Cook since 2003 below.
If you or a family member has endured medical complications related to a Cook IVC filter, we invite you to contact our office for a free case review with an attorney who has experience with these cases. Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC is actively involved in cases involving Cook and other IVC filter manufacturers and can answer any questions you have about lawsuits related to these devices.
The Two Most Used Cook IVC Filters
In response to complications arising from traditional methods to treat blood clots and pulmonary embolism, Cook developed the Günther Tulip filter to trap clots before they could travel to the lungs or to other areas of concern such as the heart or brain. The device is anchored in the inferior vena caval by four primary struts and eight secondary struts expand to create a net that captures the clots and holds them in place until they break apart. The Günther Tulip filter is an optionally retrievable filter and while these types of filters are used throughout Europe, they never gained premarket approval in the United States. In 2008, Cook took the Celect IVC filter to market, which is another optionally retrievable filter that operates similarly to the Günther Tulip filter.
Since 2003, the FDA has received over 900 complaints of injuries arising from defective IVC filters fracturing, migrating, becoming embedded in the body and puncturing critical organs. Further studies showed that all IVC filters studied created perforations in the vein wall and 40% were no longer in their original position. The complications and injuries associated with these devices range from moderate to life threatening and many of the victims require emergency surgical measures in response to complications. In the worst cases, pieces of the devices have broken away and found their way to the heart, lungs or other major organs.
How IVC Device Manufacturers Avoid Premarket Approval
The first question you had to ask when discovering these devices never received FDA approval is how they ever made it to market to begin with. There is a loophole that pharmaceutical companies and device manufacturers love to use in which products may be marketed as long as they are similar to existing products. This is called 510(k) clearance and it allows corporations to skirt the need to perform clinical research and trials to make sure that a product is safe before selling it to consumers. The blatant abuse of this loophole calls into question the approval process in general and demands change to the process in order to give the FDA more oversight.
Sadly, more oversight will not help until the FDA also receives more resources. Thousands of medical devices and medications are presented for review every year and the FDA is stretched too thin to keep up. This is another weakness that device manufacturers exploit and the only recourse is to hold them accountable in civil court. Major medical device manufacturers and pharmaceuticals only speak in the language of profit and loss, which is one of the reasons that you should not remain silent if you have been injured by an IVC filter or any other medical device.
We Will Fight on Your Behalf to Get You The Maximum Compensation for Your IVC Case
No law team is more experienced than the Chicago IVC filter attorneys of Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC at challenging the large medical device manufacturers. We have successfully recovered compensation for the medical expenses, lost wages and pain and suffering of our clients and are confident that we can do the same on your behalf. In the most severe of cases, we have even been able to secure punitive damages, which further hold negligent manufacturers accountable by hurting them where it truly counts.
Contact us today for a risk-free case review with an attorney who can answer all of your questions and go over your legal options with you in greater detail. After we have the opportunity to investigate your claim, we will be able to create a strategy to ensure you receive the maximum about of compensation available under Illinois law. At no point in the process will you need to concern yourself with providing us payment, as recovering from your injuries should be your primary concern. We will only collect a fee upon successful recovery of compensation on your behalf and if we cannot secure damages on your behalf, our services won’t cost a thing.
Learn more about our IVC Filter litigation below:
