Surgical Robot Lawsuits Won't Be Consolidated

Four federal lawsuits alleging that design flaws in the da Vinci surgical robot resulted in patient injuries or deaths will be heard separately in their respective districts and not centralized at a single court, as attorneys for some of the patients and the manufacturer had hoped.

In a ruling issued August 3, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation rejected the request to move product liability lawsuits filed in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and New York to California, where Intuitive Surgical — maker of the da Vinci robot — is located.

For patients' attorneys, centralizing the lawsuits offers advantages in making their cases. For the manufacturer, it means not fighting battles on multiple fronts. But the panel ruled that it was "not persuaded that centralization would serve the convenience of the parties and witnesses or further the just and efficient conduct of this litigation."

Given the straightforward, personal injury nature of the cases, and the fact that there were only 4 cases (at most 5, if a pending case from Michigan is filed), the litigation was not too complex or numerous to be handled separately, the panel said.

The product liability lawsuits against Intuitive's da Vinci robot allege that faulty insulation, stray electrosurgical current and insufficient user training led directly to patients' injuries or deaths.

In Alabama, for example, hysterectomy patient Gwendolyn Jones suffered injuries to her left ureter and bladder during the robot's use, damage that allegedly could have been avoided had the physician been more aware of the dangers of its monopolar current. And in New York, 24-year-old Kimberly McCalla died 2 weeks after stray current burned artery and intestine during a hysterectomy.

David Bernard