Jessica Gehner was implanted with a Cook Medical inferior vena cava (IVC) filter in Ohio. She later developed abdominal pain, and a March 2013 CT scan revealed that the filter had perforated her IVC. Gehner’s doctors believed that the filter was compressing her small bowel, causing her pain, and recommended the filter’s removal. The IVC filter was removed in Ohio in April 2013, but a fragment was left behind because the filter had fractured prior to or during removal.
Gehner sued Cook Incorporated, Cook Medical LLC, and William Cook Europe APS in May 2016, as part of the consolidated proceedings in federal court in In re: Cook Medical, Inc., IVC Filters Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2570, including products liability and implied warranty claims.
The defendants moved for judgment on the pleadings, Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(c), arguing that her claims were time barred under Ohio’s two-year statute of limitations. In response, Gehner asserted that her doctors told her that she was experiencing a rare side effect of the filter, not that the filter was defective. She said she was unaware of the defect until 2016, when her mother saw a television commercial about the defective nature of IVC filters and told Gehner about it. The district court granted the defendants’ motion, concluding that the claims were time barred. In doing so, the court relied on an affidavit from Gehner, which the parties agreed converted the defendants’ Rule 12(c) motion to one for summary judgment. Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(d). Gehner appealed, arguing that her claims are not time barred by the two-year statute of limitations.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit stated in its decison dated July 30, 2024: “In March 2013, Gehner’s doctors informed her that the IVC filter—which had perforated her IVC and was compressing her small bowel—was the cause of her abdominal pain and needed to be removed. Her cause of action thus began to accrue then, as she was informed by competent medical authority that she had an injury related to the IVC filter. At the latest, it began to accrue in April 2013, when her IVC filter was removed, and a fragment was left behind because the filter had
fractured … Because Gehner sued more than two years after becoming aware that the IVC filter injured her, and more than two years after the filter’s removal, the district court correctly concluded that her claims were time barred.”
“Her claim concerns a latent defect, not a latent injury: she states that her physicians never informed her that a defect in the filter caused her injury. Gehner does not argue that she was unaware she was injured or unaware her injury was related to the filter. And awareness of an injury is “enough to put a reasonable person on notice of the need for further inquiry even where a defect is latent” … Summary judgment for the defendants is therefore proper.”
Source In the Matter of: Cook Medical, Inc., IVC Filters Marjeting, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation Appeal of: Jessica Gehner, No. 23-3008.
If you or a loved one were seriously injured (or worse) due to a defective IVC filter, you should promptly find a defective medical device claim lawyer who may investigate your IVC filter claim for you or your loved one and represent you or your loved one in a claim for compensation due to the harm suffered as a result of a defective IVC filter, if appropriate.
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