Bard PowerPort Litigation Shifts to Fracture Cases as Second Bellwether Nears

The second bellwether trial in the Bard PowerPort MDL will begin August 18, 2026 in the District of Arizona — a catheter fracture case brought by plaintiff Kimberly Divelbliss, according to a May 19 case management order. The trial follows a split outcome in the litigation's first test case: in early May 2026, the jury in Cook v. Becton Dickinson cleared Bard on failure-to-warn and consumer fraud claims but hung on the central design-defect question, leaving the MDL's core theory unresolved.

The stakes are substantial. MDL 3081 holds 3,376 pending cases alleging that Bard's implantable port catheters — used primarily by cancer patients receiving chemotherapy — are prone to fracture, migration, and infection. Judge David G. Campbell also reduced the planned bellwether trials from six to five in the same May 19 order, finding the remaining cases "will provide a meaningful and representative test of the claims and defenses."

The First Verdict Was a Split Decision, Not a Sweep

Media coverage framed Cook as a defense win, but the verdict was narrower than the headlines. Plaintiff Robert Cook, a Minnesota colorectal cancer patient, alleged his PowerPort became infected, hospitalizing him for six days and delaying chemotherapy by two weeks. His counsel argued Bard knew for decades its devices were prone to infection yet shelved safer technologies — antimicrobial coatings, non-fouling surfaces, smoother catheter materials — developed as early as 2005.

The early read among litigation analysts: infection cases may be harder for plaintiffs than fracture or migration cases, because defendants can point to the patient's underlying condition — active cancer, immune suppression — as an alternative cause. Fracture cases come with an X-ray showing a broken catheter. That makes the August 18 Divelbliss trial a genuinely different test.

The Trial Schedule Through Early 2027

Judge Campbell has signaled that cases not resolved by settlement after these bellwethers will be transferred or remanded to their home districts for individual trials — the same playbook he ran in the earlier Bard IVC filter MDL. Industry commentators project per-case values in the $10,000 to $300,000+ range depending on injury severity, though no settlement framework exists yet.

Building the PowerPort Case File

PowerPort cases live and die on device identification and imaging. Not every port is a Bard port — the threshold question is whether the operative report names a Bard PowerPort, PowerPort isp, PowerPort MRI, ClearVUE, or related Bard device. From there, the injury must be documented, not inferred.

The practical problem is that this evidence sits across three or four different provider systems: the implanting surgeon, the imaging center, the hospital that handled the failure, and the oncology practice. Firms working up PowerPort inventories ahead of the August trial are compressing that retrieval cycle — same-day retrieval services like LlamaLab pull operative reports, imaging, and treatment records from all providers in 24-48 hours, and flag the device identification buried inside operative reports so triage doesn't wait on a paralegal read-through.

What's Next

The Bottom Line

The PowerPort MDL is entering its decisive stretch. One jury has already shown that infection claims face headwinds; the next four trials — starting with a fracture case on August 18 — will determine whether the litigation resolves globally or fragments into thousands of remanded trials.

For firms, the mandate is triage: sort inventories by injury type, confirm Bard device identification in every file, and close imaging gaps before the fall trials reshape the settlement math.

Sources: AboutLawsuits — Second Bellwether Order, MDL Update — MDL 3081, Verus — First Bellwether Verdict, Lawsuit Legal — Qualification Criteria, Harm Report — Case Documentation. Case counts current as of June 2026.

This article provides general information about Bard PowerPort litigation developments and should not be construed as legal or medical advice. Consult with qualified professionals for advice specific to your situation.