“Since 2013 there have been safer designs that are available that have added coating that leads to significantly reduced blood clots that lead to occlusion of the catheter and blood clots to the veins of the arm that can lead to pulmonary embolisms and blood infections,” states Greg Vigna, MD, JD.

Greg Vigna, MD, JD, national product liability attorney, PICC line and midline attorney continues, “My law firm is investigating cases of blood clots and blood infections caused by properly positioned PICC lines and midlines that have occurred since 2013. Doctors who order PICC lines assume that the pharmaceutical industry would do the right thing and incorporate the available technology to reduce these serious complications. This litigation will push this technology and other available safer designs of PICC lines to the shelves in hospitals across the country.”

Dr. Vigna adds, “As a medical director of a long-term acute care hospital, we used PICC lines and midlines to allow for IV antibiotics, IV nutrition, IV fluids, and other intravenous medications. I have managed line associated blood infections and blood clots related to central venous lines since medical school. These complications are triggered by the inflammatory reaction to the catheter that are used for IV fluids and antibiotic management. Any design of a central venous catheter that reduces the risk of blood clots should be available to physicians across the country because blood clots as serious complications and blood clots get infected leading to sepsis.”

Dr. Vigna continues, “The catheter when placed in the veins and is exposed to the blood stream triggers a foreign body inflammatory reaction that results in blood clots and bacterial infections associated with these devices. Patients in the United States and across the world should have the devices with the coating that has been available since 2013 that substantially reduces the risk of these complications.”

Blood infections from PICC lines and midline catheters lead to sepsis and septic shock.

“Since 2013 there have been safer designs that are available that have added coating that leads to significantly reduced blood clots..”— Greg Vigna, M.D., J.D.

What is sepsis? Multiple organ damage from inflammation as a result of infection that may result in organ damage to brain, kidney, heart, liver, and lung.

What is septic shock? A life-threatening condition that caused dangerously low blood pressure because of infection that may result in amputations of fingers and toes, brain damage, kidney failure, ventilator dependence, oxygen dependence, and nerve damage.

What is a deep venous thrombosis? Blood clots in the deep venous system that is referred to as a DVT that have the potential to break off and travel to the lung and this is called a pulmonary embolism.

Dr. Vigna concludes, “We are looking forward to discovery against CR Bard Inc., Teleflex, Cook Medical and others so we understand the truth why they continue to sell inferior devices. Ultimately it will be come down to their decision to choose profits over safety.”

Dr. Vigna is a California and Washington DC lawyer who serious injuries cause by defective medical devices. He represents the injured with the Ben Martin Law Group, a national pharmaceutical injury law firm in Dallas, Texas. The attorneys are product liability and medical malpractice attorneys, and they represent the most injured across the country.

References:
https://www.birpublications.org/doi/full/10.1259/bjr/32639616
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17434440.2019.1555466

Greg Vigna, MD, JD
Vigna Law Group
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