Wife of infected plaintiff testifies in Bard PowerPort catheter trial

PHOENIX (CN) — A Minnesota man suing a global medical technology company was not warned of any increased risk of catheter infection while de-accessing his port catheter at home, his wife testified in federal court Tuesday.

Ann Potter told a nine-person jury that she disconnected the chemotherapy treatment from her husband’s chest-implanted PowerPort catheter the same way every time, as instructed by doctors at the Mayo Clinic. She was given instructional videos and a printed step-by-step guide to complete the five-minute procedure at home.

But soon after conducting the procedure for the first time in August 2022, Robert Cook’s catheter became infected, resulting in a six-day hospitalization and a sepsis diagnosis that delayed his chemotherapy treatments by a month.

“The scariest thing about cancer is feeling like you’re going to lose control of it,” Potter said through tears on the witness stand. “Not treating it is like holding a grenade in your hand without the pin.”

Cook sued in September 2023 over product liability and negligence, claiming the catheter manufacturer C.R. Bard knew of the elevated risk associated with its port catheters and did nothing to make its products safer or educate physicians and patients on the associated dangers. C.R. Bard, a subsidiary of Becton Dickinson and Company, has said at trial that the infection was not its fault, but rather the result of improper procedure in a non-sterilized environment.

Though Potter was trained to conduct the de-accessing at home by nursing staff before driving Cook back from the hospital, Potter received help during the procedure from a family friend, Megan McGuigan Oglesbee, who was not similarly trained. But Potter said she showed Oglesbee the same video she had watched.

While removing adhesive tape around the port, Potter said she hesitated because Cook showed signs of pain.

“At some point in the process, we switched over,” she said, referring to Oglesbee. “I’m not sure at what point in the process. He flinched, we made eye contact, and she took the lead.”

Defense attorney Kate Helm, a partner at Georgia-based Nelson Mullins, suggested Oglesbee made a mistake that could have led to the infection. Potter rejected the idea, assuring the jury that the steps were followed correctly. After Cook’s infection healed, he was implanted with a new port and treated with more chemotherapy, meaning Potter and Oglesbee had to de-access his medication at least nine other times.

“All of the steps were exactly the same,” Potter said. “We did the same steps every time we de-accessed it.”

Potter said she and Oglesbee sanitized their hands and wore gloves before touching the port. Cook laid on the dining room table with a medical pad beneath him.

Cook experienced no complications with the replacement port.

Last week, Cook’s counsel introduced multiple studies showing a high rate of complications from port catheters, arguing C.R. Bard should have invested more into anti-microbial and anti-clotting catheter materials to prevent infection. C.R. Bard argued Cook’s decision to implant a new port catheter nullifies his claim that he wasn’t made aware of the risk.

Because Cook and Potter lived a 90-minute drive from the Mayo Clinic, Cook’s doctors told them doing the quick procedure at home would be better than driving him all the way to the doctor and back. Potter said the car ride would have been especially painful for Cook during his chemo.

But the doctors never told her doing so at home would carry a higher risk of infection.

“We would have figured out a way to make driving him work,” he said.

Once infected, Potter said she met with the Mayo Clinic risk management team, which couldn’t identify what caused the infection and never mentioned the at-home de-access as a factor.

“Nobody could really give us an answer,” she said.

Cook’s counsel may call Oglesbee later in the week.

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