Bair Hugger Legal News Articles & Interviews

Houston, TX Gabriel Assaad has filed lawsuits against 3M and Arizant Healthcare (3M acquired Arizant in 2010) on behalf of patients who developed periprosthetic joint infections (PJI) after undergoing joint replacement surgery where a Bair Hugger warming blanket was used. If you had a knee or hip replacement surgery, suffered an infection and required additional surgery on your implant, you may be entitled to compensation.

Santa Clara, CA 3M has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to grant a review of the U.S. appeals court decision to reinstate close to 6,000 Bair Hugger lawsuits claiming the warming blanket used in surgery results in knee and hip infections. In August 2021, the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit revived the lawsuits.

Washington, DC: 3M’s , Bair Hugger, the subject of some 2600 defective products lawsuits across the US, has received clearance for use from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to a spokesperson for the FDA, the agency has no conclusive evidence to establish an association between use of a forced air thermal regulating systems and an increased risk of surgical-site infections.

Santa Clara, CA: Plaintiffs involved in multi-district litigation (MDL) against 3M’s post-surgery patient-warming device, Bair Hugger, are on their way to court, following the selection of approximately 30 bellwether cases. The patients involved in the MDL allege that the Bair Hugger Forced-Air Warming system caused them to develop infections after undergoing surgical procedures. Specifically, the device, which blows hot air into a specially designed blanket covering a patient, spreads bacteria from the hospital floor or the inside of the device, the lawsuits state.

Minneapolis, MN: It’s little wonder the Bair Hugger lawsuit ledger continues to grow and swell, given the number of patients for whom the forced-air warming system has been utilized over the past 25 years: some 200 million procedures have used the system, originally designed and deployed to keep the patient warm and prevent hypothermia, amongst other advantages. However, Bair Hugger deep joint infection has become a serious issue for an increasing number of patients, many of whom have filed a warming blanket lawsuit.

Harris County, TX: It’s been a little over a year since plaintiff Ruth Childers from Texas filed her Bair Hugger lawsuit against 3M Co. and three other defendants, alleging the forced-air warming blanket system caused a drug-resistant infection that cost the plaintiff her leg. Childers is suing for more than $1 million in compensation by way of her warming blanket lawsuit (Ruth E. Childers v. 3M Company et al, Case No. 2015-73957 in the US District Court, Harris County, Texas).

Ramsey County, MN: It’s been almost a year to the day that a small collection of plaintiffs having filed a Bair Hugger lawsuit had their cases transferred to federal court in Minnesota, effectively creating multidistrict litigation cases that were characterized as being several dozen in number.

St. Paul, MN: In a little over a month the number of Bair Hugger warming blanket lawsuits have increased by over 100. According to court filings, there were 693 federal cases housed in multidistrict litigation on September 15 of this year. That number had increased to 809 cases by October 17, the most recent information available. With three days to go before the next scheduled Status Conference on the MDL file set for November 17, the update should provide a clearer window on the number of cases in the Bair Hugger MDL as of mid-November.

Kingston, ON: It’s been a little over a year since a landmark study in Canada revealed the striking number of door openings and closings that occur in an operating theatre during surgery. This potential for entry, migration and movement of pathogens and various bacteria may be exacerbated by the common practice of using warming blankets fed with warm air originating from heat-generating blowers located at the floor, as is the case with the Bair Hugger warming blanket system. Recently, this has led to some patients filing Bair Hugger lawsuits.

Saint Paul, MN: Almost 700 Bair Hugger lawsuits have been consolidated for pretrial proceedings, with plaintiffs alleging the medical blanket is linked to an increased risk of infections. The Bair Hugger blankets, which are designed to keep patients warm during orthopedic surgery and reduce the risk of infections while improving recovery times, may be linked to an increased risk of hospital-acquired infections, including MRSA and sepsis.