Latest Updates about 3M™ Bair Hugger™ Therapy
February 26, 2017
Once again, a 3M competitor is bending the truth in an effort to incite more litigation and unease about the market-leading Bair Hugger patient warming device. Augustine Temperature Management is claiming that the FDA and CDC have warned against allowing anything in an operating room that blows air, including the Bair Hugger device (goodbye, surgeons!). The FDA and CDC have had recent discussions about medical devices […]
January 26, 2017
More than 1,700 medical patients have filed claims against the 3M Bair Hugger warming system. The lawsuits are part of a multi-district litigation that consolidates cases before one court in an effort to streamline the litigation. All of the lawsuits are based on a bogus theory that the Bair Hugger system may have caused an infection during surgery. None of the lawsuits offer any conclusive proof […]
January 19, 2017
Two more plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their lawsuits against the 3M™ Bair Hugger™ patient warming system. In recent months, attorneys for Lucy Acosta and Randall Cantrell withdrew all claims against 3M without prejudice. In her complaint filed in December 2015, Acosta had alleged that she contracted an infection during knee surgery in October 2013. She originally claimed that it was caused by the Bair Hugger warming device. […]
January 1, 2017
The Duke Infection Control Outreach Network has notified hospitals that it recommends they keep using forced-air warming devices (such as the 3M™ Bair Hugger™ warming system) during surgeries. You can read DICON’s review here. In the strongly worded missive, DICON said the warming devices are “the only devices proven to decrease the risk of developing a post-operative infection.’’ It noted that forced-air warming (FAW) devices have […]
December 19, 2016
An Illinois judge has dismissed a lawsuit against 3M Company and its Bair Hugger surgical warming device. Madison County Circuit Judge William A. Mudge on August 25 granted the request from Carol Wiltshire to dismiss her lawsuit. She and her husband, Jeff Wiltshire, had sued 3M in November 2015, claiming an infection she contracted after knee surgery was the result of negligence on the part of […]
November 26, 2016
An anesthesiologist who supposedly authored a complaint to the FDA about the 3M™ Bair Hugger™ warming system in 2010 acknowledged in a recent deposition that he didn’t write the report, nor did he file it with the FDA. Under questioning, Dr. Robert Gauthier admitted that the letter he signed actually was written by executives of Augustine Temperature Management, a 3M competitor. Scott Augustine, the company’s founder, […]
November 19, 2016
This video has a simple and sensible message. People should not depend on lawyers to diagnose medical conditions and causes – that’s better left to physicians and medical experts. We are sympathetic to patients who have experienced surgical site infections, but we’re not sympathetic when lawyers frighten patients with unsupported claims in the hope of getting a financial settlement. More than 200 million patients have been […]
October 20, 2016
Guess how many scientific studies prove that the 3M™ Bair Hugger™ Patient Warming System can cause surgical site infections? Zero. None. Nada. Now, guess how many publications show proven benefits of patient warming? Dozens and dozens and dozens. 3M recently published an interactive compendium of scientific research conducted over the past 25+ years related to the Bair Hugger warming system. It includes more than 200 publication summaries […]
October 27, 2017
In a recent self-published study, 3M competitor Scott Augustine used data from a New York hospital to claim that the use of his conductive warming device resulted in fewer infections during joint surgeries than the use of the market-leading 3M™ Bair Hugger™ warming system. But there is a critical flaw in Augustine’s study: the New York hospital has testified that it never used the Bair Hugger […]
October 27, 2017
Another bellwether case has been voluntarily dismissed from the 3M Bair Hugger multi-district litigation. The law firm of Brown & Crouppen, which has aired more than 2,000 advertisements seeking patients who contracted surgical site infections, agreed to dismiss a lawsuit it filed on behalf of Kurtis and Debbie Skaar against 3M. Brown & Crouppen, claimed that Mr. Skaar developed an infection in 2014 as a result […]
January 9, 2018
Ruling notes Scott Augustine role in litigation 3M won a major victory on January 8, 2018, when a state court granted summary judgment in the litigation involving the 3M™ Bair Hugger™ warming system. The ruling dismisses 61 lawsuits that had been filed by Minnesota plaintiffs who claimed the warming device had caused their infections. In its 19-page decision, the court said that “there is no generally […]
March 7, 2018
More than 300 lawsuits have been dismissed in the litigation involving the 3M™ Bair Hugger™ warming system, with more expected in coming months. The dismissals are not a surprise to 3M’s legal team, which expected that a significant number of the lawsuits filed in the multi-district litigation would not meet the proper legal standards. The dismissals result from a variety of reasons: The Bair Hugger system […]
May 31, 2018
Verdict affirms science behind 3M Bair Hugger System Today, a federal jury ruled in favor of 3M, concluding that the 3M™ Bair Hugger™ patient warming system did not cause the plaintiff’s infection. The jury deliberated less than two hours before reaching its verdict.. 3M is grateful that the jury put science first. This verdict affirms the science behind the 3M Bair Hugger system, which has been […]
July 24, 2018
More than 400 lawsuits have been dismissed in the litigation involving the 3M™ Bair Hugger™ warming system. Nearly all of the dismissals, which now number 464, occurred prior to the recent jury verdict in favor of 3M. On May 30, 2018, a federal jury deliberated for less than two hours in the first bellwether case involving the Bair Hugger system before reaching its verdict. The jury […]
August 3, 2018
After jury verdict in favor of 3M, plaintiffs fail in attempt to switch bellwether cases to other jurisdictions In the wake of a unanimous jury verdict in favor of 3M and its Bair Hugger™ warming system, a federal court has denied a request by plaintiffs to effectively move their bellwether cases out of Minnesota into other jurisdictions for trial. The ruling was yet another victory for […]
August 8, 2018
Plaintiff’s attorneys drop next bellwether case before trial Four bellwether cases already dismissed Plaintiff’s attorneys have dismissed another bellwether case slated for trial in the litigation involving the 3M™ Bair Hugger™ system, marking the fourth such case to be dismissed before ever coming to trial. On July 10, attorneys for Laura Hives asked a Minnesota federal court to dismiss the case. Hives, who claimed she contracted […]