We Help Victims of Defective Port Catheters
When you’re already suffering from a serious illness, the last thing you need or deserve is even more health issues because of negligent treatment or a defective medical device. Unfortunately, that’s the reality many patients with port catheters are now facing.
This type of medical negligence is unacceptable. That’s why our firm is stepping in to help the victims of these dangerous port catheter manufacturers get the justice they deserve.
What is a Port Catheter?
Port Catheters are small thin tubes made of soft plastic that are placed inside of a vein. Implanted Port Catheters allow doctors and nurses to give medications, intravenous drips, blood draws, nutrients, and other treatments such as chemotherapy.
The advantage of having a port-catheter placement is that it provides a direct channel to the vein without having to puncture the patient multiple times. These ports can be left in place for years at a time.
Port catheters are often preferred for this type of patient because they are supposed make accessing a vein easier, safer, and more sanitary.
However, this is only true when the devices are not defectively manufactured or negligently implanted.
Port Catheter Injuries
Reports indicate that port catheters from numerous brands have been known to break within patients’ bodies.
Broken pieces can then move through the patient’s vascular system, causing serious and even life-threatening injuries.
What’s going wrong with these port catheters?
The port catheter may fracture, causing pieces to puncture the vein and other tissue and organs.
The entire port may get dislodged and migrate through the body, requiring emergency surgery to remove.
The components of the port catheter may begin to break down inside the body, causing medication to leak inside the body and/or allow bacteria into the bloodstream.
What’s happening to patients?
Patients whose port catheters break inside their bodies are at risk of a variety of extremely dangerous injuries and health problems, including:
- Blood infections
- Blood clots
- Hemorrhage (excessive bleeding)
- Severe infection, up to sepsis and necrosis (death of body tissue)
- Heart problems
- Vein and organ puncture
- Death
Many victims of defective ports required revision surgery.
What Brands of Port Catheter are Affected?
Unfortunately, it’s not just one brand. Several brands have been recalled or implicated in lawsuits for causing serious health problems in users.
These brands include:
- Bard PowerPort
- AngioDynamics Vortex Port
- Cook Medical Vital-Port
- & Potentially More
These companies failed to properly warn patients and healthcare providers of the risks their devices posed and brought them to the market without ensuring they were safe first. This makes these brands potentially liable for any harm that resulted.
How to Get Compensation
If you or someone you love was implanted with a port catheter as part of your cancer treatment or treatment for any other condition, and experienced complications, you may be eligible to file a claim for compensation.
This includes compensation for:
- Medical Expenses
- Wages lost while recovering from your injuries
- Physical pain and emotional suffering
Learning that the reason your health was put at risk was due to someone else’s negligence can cause you to feel unbearable amounts of stress, fear, and anger. When you’re trying to recover from a serious illness and a new injury on top of that, you shouldn’t have to try to handle it alone.
Contact our firm. We can go over your port catheter-related injury with you in a free case review. If you are eligible for compensation, we want to take on the hard work of helping you get it, so you can focus on what’s more important: getting better.
Call today to get started and get connected with one of our personal injury lawyers with the experience in defective product injury law you need.