On June 18, 2015, Rick Kaitz, a real estate attorney based in Boston, filed the latest lawsuit in a litigation surrounding the use of power morcellators, “non-invasive” medical devices that have the potential to spread undetected uterine cancers. In his claim, Kaitz names Karl Storz, a German manufacturer of power morcellators, as well as Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, as defendants. According to Sean Tracey, Esq., managing partner at Tracey & Fox, Kaitz is one of several widowers to file wrongful death morcellator complaints in federal court.
Kaitz says that a morcellation procedure spread occult uterine cancer cells within his late wife’s body, ultimately leading to her death. His claim was brought in Suffolk County Superior Court. Brigham & Women’s is a member of Harvard University’s Partners HealthCare network.
Plaintiff’s wife, Erica Kaitz underwent a laparoscopic hysterectomy at Brigham and Women’s in June of 2012, after being diagnosed with uterine fibroids. During her procedure, Karl Storz’s morcellator was used to grind fibroid and uterine tissue into small pieces for easier removal. But as the US Food & Drug Administration has now warned, morcellation can disseminate undiagnosed uterine sarcomas, rare soft tissue cancers that can become even more aggressive when spread. A pathological report after Kaitz’s procedure revealed that she herself had a leiomyosarcoma. Uterine cancers are particularly dangerous because they cannot be reliably distinguished from benign, non-cancerous fibroids until after a procedure is complete.
Erica Kaitz died on December 7, 2013, less than two years after undergoing her hysterectomy. The same month, Brigham and Women’s began to limit the use of power morcellators in gynecological procedures, after publicly acknowledging that the device had spread undetected uterine cancers in two patients, including plaintiff’s wife. The hospital stopped using morcellators altogether early in 2014. But according to Kaitz’s complaint, surgeons at Brigham initially misrepresented the risks of morcellation in consultations with his wife.
He accuses Brigham and Women’s, along with the surgeon who performed his wife’s procedure, of citing a risk ratio that the hospital knew or should have known to be incorrect. Plaintiff refers to a study, published the year prior to his late wife’s operation, which found that “the rate of unexpected sarcoma after [a] laparoscopic morcellation procedure was [...] 9-fold higher than the rate currently quoted to patients during pre-procedure briefing.” The study, published in PLoS ONE, looked at procedures and “pre-procedure briefing[s]” conducted at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Plaintiff claims that Brigham’s surgeons told his wife that 1 out of 10,000 women were at risk of harboring an undiagnosed uterine cancer. The US Food & Drug Administration’s current risk estimate stands at 1 out of 350.
According to the Wall Street Journal, researchers at Brigham and Women’s gathered evidence indicating the heightened risks of morcellation in 2011, but the hospital continued using the devices for another two years.
The dangerous medical device attorneys at Tracey & Fox are currently representing a number of other individuals who say that the use of a power morcellator spread undetected uterine cancers. Led by Sean Tracey, Esq., the lawyers are providing free consultations to patients and families who believe they may have a potential morcellator claim. For more information, call 713.495.2333.
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Contact Tracey & Fox:
Sean Tracey
713-495-2333
440 Louisiana Street , Suite 1901 Houston, TX 77002
