Published August 10, 2026
A catheter-fracture case survived the defendants' bid for summary judgment on July 27, 2026, clearing the way for it to become the second bellwether trial in the Bard PowerPort multidistrict litigation (MDL No. 3081), scheduled to begin August 18, 2026 before Judge David G. Campbell in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. The MDL consolidates claims that Bard's PowerPort implantable catheter systems are prone to fracturing, migrating within the body, and causing infections, blood clots, or organ damage.
The case follows the litigation's first bellwether trial, Cook v. Becton Dickinson, which centered on infection-related claims. That trial ended in early May 2026 with a split result: the jury cleared Bard and its parent company Becton Dickinson on the plaintiff's failure-to-warn, failure-to-instruct, and consumer fraud claims, but deadlocked on the central design-defect question, leaving that issue unresolved.
Because the first trial's design-defect question ended in a hung jury, the upcoming fracture-case bellwether gives both sides a fresh chance to test how a jury evaluates the product's core design allegations — this time centered on catheter fracture rather than infection. As of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation's July 2026 report, roughly 3,560 PowerPort cases are pending in the MDL, and the docket continues to accept new filings. Additional bellwether trials are expected later in 2026 and into 2027.
If you or a family member experienced a fracture, migration, infection, or blood clot linked to an implanted port catheter, see Atumio's Bard PowerPort case page to learn more about who may be affected.