A device that’s intended to help surgery patients may be infecting them. That device is the Bair Hugger, a forced-air warming device applied to many patients undergoing hip or knee joint implants or heart valve implants to prevent their bodies from dropping in temperature.
Such infections can lead to multiple revision surgeries to attempt to correct the problem, and often can end in amputation of a limb. Victims of such severe Bair Hugger side effects have a legal right to seek payments by means of a warming blanket infection lawsuit, which can be provided by this law firm.
Notify the Willis Law Firm today about your case, and we’ll quickly provide you a free legal consultation. Then you can decide how you want to proceed after learning of your prospects for a successful Bair Hugger lawsuit.
Target of Bair Hugger Lawsuit
The target of a Bair Hugger lawsuit would be the owner and seller of the devices, 3M, based in Minnesota. A 3M subsidiary called Arizant, formerly known as Augustine Medical, was bought by 3M in 2010 and manufactures the device in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
The Bair Hugger has been used on millions of patients since it reached the market in 1988. Indeed, around four out of every five hospitals has used the device on surgical patients.
A Bair Hugger lawsuit can assert that 3M was aware of the dangers of infection due to its device but did not alert healthcare providers about such dangers. In fact, it could be asserted that 3M as well as Arizant tried to hide or discredit scientific findings showing a connection between Bair Hugger devices and surgery infections.
Warming device lawsuits can claim payments for victims’ hospital and medical bills, their lost present and future wages and their pain and suffering caused by the defective product.
FDA Approved Bair Hugger
You may be wondering why a defective device would be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA. But often it’s true that defects in drugs or medical devices are not fully known until the products have been in widespread active use. In effect, the American public becomes test subjects for these products’ efficacy.
In the case of Arizant’s Bair Hugger, the FDA initially approved the warming system in 1987 via the 510(k) premarket clearance program as a substantially equivalent medical device. That means the FDA approved the Bair Hugger without having clinical proof that it was safe since it was similar to a comparable device already on the market.
Since then, many adverse events involving Bair Hugger warming devices have been reported to the FDA. Yet the federal agency hasn’t yet made a Bair Hugger recall, nor has 3M, which continues to profit from selling the device.
In fact, in the first four years since purchasing Avanti for $810 million, 3M raked in $31 billion in worldwide sales of its defective Bair Huggers.
Bair Hugger Side Effects
Apart from infections, adverse Bair Hugger events reported to the FDA include burns due to sustained heat during surgery. But the biggest concern following studies of the device is that the air forced into the warming blankets can contain bacteria and germs which can infect the surgical site.
Such infections can be devastating to innocent Americans exposed to this potentially harmful product. Those Americans have a legal right to seek economic recovery for their injury losses — and that can come by contacting the Willis Law Firm. We stand ready to help victims claim the payments to which they are legally due by means of a warming blanket infection lawsuit on their behalf.