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A Philadelphia jury has awarded more than $33 million to a woman who was injured as a result of a defectively designed blood filter.

The jury in the case, captioned Reed-Brown v. Rex Medical, awarded plaintiff Tracy Reed-Brown $1,045,764 million in future medical expenses and $2,322,650 million in future pain and suffering. The jury also found that defendant Rex Medical's conduct merited a punitive damages award, and, following an abbreviated argument session, awarded an additional $30,315,726 in punitive damages.

The trial, which was overseen by Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Michael Erdos, was the first case to come before a Philadelphia jury from the litigation focused on inferior vena cava, or IVC, filters.

According to the consolidated docket in Philadelphia, more than 760 lawsuits are pending in the court's vena cava mass tort program. That is in addition to the more than 15,000 filter cases pending in federal courts.

Following the award, David Matthews of the Houston-based firm Matthews & Associates, who, along with Rosemary Pinto of the Philadelphia-based firm Feldman & Pinto and Timothy Goss of Freeze Goss in Dallas, represented Reed-Brown, said the award showed the jury found there to be a "system failure."

"They really understood the facts and they really understood what happened in this case," he said.

Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith attorneys Megan Grossman and Walter "Pete" Swayze III led the trial team for the defendant. Swayze declined to immediately comment without speaking with Rex Medical first. Rex Medical also did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

The litigation focuses on allegations that the defendants failed to properly warn about the dangers of the filter devices, which were designed to prevent blood clots, but can allegedly migrate or fracture in patients' bodies, causing perforations. The injuries, according to plaintiffs, put patients at risk for a host of medical problems, including gastrointestinal difficulties, kidney failure and death.

Reed-Brown focuses on the "Option Retrievable" filter, which, according to Reed-Brown's complaint, was manufactured by Rex Medical and distributed by Argon Medical Devices. In her lawsuit, Reed-Brown, a Georgia resident, alleged she was implanted with the device in December 2016 in Georgia, but the device later perforated through the wall of her vena cava, causing severe pain and complications, including fear and anxiety that the device may fracture, which could be fatal.

The complaint said the defendants failed to conduct sufficient clinical testing, and knew or should have known that there was a high rate of embedments, fracture and migrations, but failed to warn. The complaint raised negligence, strict liability, design defect, manufacturing defect, breach of warranty and negligent misrepresentation claims.

The verdict is a decisive win for what has so far been a litigation with mixed results.

The related federal litigation focuses on Cook Medical, which is based in Bloomington, Indiana, and New Jersey company Bard Medical. As of Sept. 16, federal records showed more than 7,000 cases were pending against Cook in Indiana federal court, and more than 8,600 were pending against Bard in Arizona federal court.

Cook won the first IVC filter trial in 2017, but it lost a $1.2 million verdict in Texas state court in May 2018. Cook was also hit with a $3 million verdict in February. In March of last year, plaintiffs won a $3.6 million verdict against Bard. That verdict included a $2 million punitive damages award against Bard. The company, however, followed up in June 2018 with a defense win.

Following the verdict Monday, Goss said the verdict should have implications for the other IVC filter cases pending.

"The jury got it and hopefully this will go towards getting people relief from all of these filters," he said.