Implanted venous access ports have become essential medical devices for patients undergoing chemotherapy, receiving long-term medications, or requiring repeated blood draws.
These small devices, placed beneath the skin with a catheter running into a major vein, eliminate the need for constant needle sticks and provide reliable access for treatments that can last months or years.
But what happens when the device meant to help becomes the source of serious injury? In New York, patients injured by defective medical devices have legal rights, but the deadlines to act are strict, and the evidence needed to prove a defect requires immediate preservation and expert analysis.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
What is An Implanted Port Catheter ?
An implanted venous access port goes by several names, including Port-a-Cath, PowerPort, or the technical term TIVAD (totally implantable venous access device).
Regardless of brand, these devices share a common design: a small reservoir placed under the skin, typically on the chest wall, connected to a thin catheter that threads through a vein into a large vessel near the heart.
When medication, fluids, or nutrition are needed, a trained nurse accesses the port through the skin with a specially designed needle. The medication then flows through the catheter directly into a major vessel near the heart, where it disperses through the bloodstream.
Doctors recommend ports for patients who need frequent intravenous access over weeks, months, or years, most commonly cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, but also people receiving long-term IV nutrition or antibiotics.
The alternative, repeated peripheral IVs or external central lines, generally means more discomfort and, in the case of external lines, a higher infection risk.
What Makes a Port Catheter Defective
Every medical device carries inherent risks. Surgery to place a port can cause bleeding or infection. Blood clots can form around any catheter sitting in a vein.
A defective port is different. A port becomes legally defective when its design, manufacturing, or labeling creates unreasonable dangers beyond those baseline risks. There are three recognized categories:
Design defects. The blueprint of the device itself is flawed, so every unit made to that design carries the same heightened risk.
Manufacturing defects. A specific unit deviates from the intended design because of a production error, contamination, or a quality control failure, even though the design itself is sound.
Warning defects. The manufacturer knew or should have known about a risk but failed to adequately inform doctors and patients.
Published clinical reviews put overall port complication rates somewhere in the range of roughly 2% to 18%, depending heavily on the patient population, the device, the implant site, and how long the port stays in place, with infection typically the most common complication and thrombosis reported in a meaningful minority of cases.
New York courts evaluate design defect claims using a risk-utility test, weighing whether the product’s risks outweigh its benefits and whether a safer alternative design was feasible.
What Does A Catheter Fracture Signal ?
Not every catheter fracture means the device was defective. External trauma or unusual compression can break a catheter.
One recognized, non-defect cause is pinch-off syndrome, where the catheter gets repeatedly compressed between the collarbone and first rib, most often when it’s placed through a vein under the collarbone.
Factors that may suggest a defect rather than an isolated bad outcome include:
The fracture occurred during normal use, without any accident or unusual stress
Other patients with the same device model have reported similar fractures
Expert examination of the retrieved catheter shows material degradation, micro-cracks, or manufacturing flaws
The pattern of fracture matches known degradation issues associated with the device model
Over time this compression can wear through the catheter, and imaging sometimes shows a narrowing at the pinch point before a fracture occurs. Fractures occurring without a clear external cause like this, especially when they follow patterns across similar devices, raise questions worth investigating.
In March 2025, the FDA classified Smiths Medical’s recall of its ProPort Plastic Implantable Ports as a Class I recall, its most serious category, after finding that a manufacturing defect could cause the plastic port housing to separate from the reservoir before, during, or after implantation.
Separately, ongoing litigation involving Bard PowerPort devices illustrates how fracture patterns are used to build a defect claim.
How Catheter Migration Happens
Migration means the catheter has moved from where it should sit, typically in a large vessel near the heart. It can retract into a smaller vein, advance too far into the heart, or work its way into surrounding tissue.
The consequences depend on where the catheter ends up:
Retraction into a smaller vein can cause obstruction, leading to facial swelling, difficulty breathing, and other serious complications.
Advancing too far can perforate heart chambers or major vessels.
Migration into surrounding tissue causes medication to leak into spaces where it doesn’t belong, sometimes requiring emergency surgery.
Migration also raises infection risk, since a catheter moving against vessel walls causes irritation that gives bacteria additional entry points. Patient anatomy, surgical technique, and activity level all influence catheter position, so not every migration points to a defect.
Understanding Port Infections and When They Suggest a Device Problem
An infection by itself is usually a question about clinical care rather than the device. The CDC’s guidance on preventing catheter-related infections recommends specific hand hygiene, sterile technique, and skin antisepsis practices before and during central line placement and access, along with daily evaluation of whether the line is still needed.
When an infection follows a lapse in these practices, that generally points toward a question of care, not a defective device.
Research has identified several patient and use-related risk factors for port infection that have nothing to do with a device defect, including:
Lower body weight or low body mass index
Male sex
Use of the port primarily for total parenteral nutrition (IV feeding)
Placement in a femoral vein rather than the chest wall
These factors matter when evaluating whether an infection points to a defective device or simply reflects known clinical risk.
But certain patterns suggest the device itself may be involved: recurring infections despite proper sterile technique and careful port care, infections that develop long after implantation and coincide with signs of catheter degradation, or expert examination of a removed port that reveals biofilm colonizing cracks and surface irregularities that shouldn’t exist in a properly manufactured catheter.
Can You Sue for Injuries From a Defective Port Catheter?
Yes. New York law allows patients injured by defective medical devices, including port catheters, to pursue claims against manufacturers and others in the supply chain through product liability law.
Product liability claims don’t require proof that the manufacturer was careless in the traditional sense. Instead, they focus on the product itself: if the device was defectively designed, improperly manufactured, or sold without adequate warnings, and that defect caused your injury, you may have a claim.
To succeed, you generally need to show:
The device contained a defect, whether in design, manufacturing, or warnings
The defect existed when the product left the manufacturer’s control
The defect was a substantial factor in causing your injury
You suffered compensable damages as a result
Expert witnesses are essential in these cases because the issues are highly technical, including how the device was designed and manufactured, how a specific defect causes fracture, migration, or infection, and why alternative designs would have been safer.
New York courts require that expert scientific testimony be based on methods and conclusions generally accepted within the relevant scientific community.
What About Medical Malpractice Claims?
Port catheter injuries often raise questions about both the device and the care surrounding it. Product liability focuses on whether the port itself was defective.
Medical malpractice examines whether your healthcare providers departed from accepted standards of care, which can include:
Device selection. Choosing a device with known elevated complication rates without adequate justification when safer alternatives existed.
Implantation technique. Using proper sterile technique, appropriate vein selection, correct catheter positioning, and verification imaging. Choosing a femoral vein when chest wall placement was feasible, for example, creates unnecessary infection and clotting risk.
Monitoring and response. Promptly investigating reported symptoms of fracture, migration, or infection, ordering imaging when indicated, and treating infections appropriately.
Sometimes both a defective device and negligent care contribute to the same injury. Other times only one theory applies.
Because the claims can overlap, an attorney experienced in both product liability and medical malpractice can evaluate all potential sources of liability so you don’t miss a claim or a deadline.
How Long Do You Have to File a Claim in New York?
Time limits depend on the type of claim:
Product liability. New York generally allows three years from the date of injury under CPLR 214(5). The “date of injury” isn’t always obvious in a bone loss or gradual-degradation case, and courts may interpret it differently depending on the facts.
Medical malpractice. New York generally requires filing within two years and six months of the act, omission, or last related treatment, under CPLR 214-a. If you continued treatment with the same doctor for the same condition, the deadline may run from when that treatment ended rather than from the original act, though New York courts interpret this continuous treatment exception narrowly.
Latent, gradually discovered injuries. CPLR 214-c provides a discovery-based deadline for injuries caused by the latent effects of exposure to a substance, and the statute specifically defines “exposure” to include implantation. This can be relevant when catheter material degrades or leaches in ways that cause injury gradually, without an immediate, obvious event, though whether it applies depends on the specific facts of the case.
Wrongful death. Under EPTL 5-4.1, a wrongful death claim generally must be filed within two years of the date of death, a separate and often shorter deadline than the underlying injury claim.
Because these deadlines interact in complicated ways, and because fraudulent concealment or ongoing treatment can affect them in some circumstances, an early conversation with an attorney is the safest way to protect your options, even if you haven’t decided whether to pursue a claim.
Why Preserving the Port Device Matters for Your Case
If a port has been removed because of complications, what happens to that device can determine whether a defect can be proven.
Materials scientists can examine the polymer for degradation and cracks, engineers can test mechanical properties against design specifications, and biofilm analysis can show whether infection colonized surfaces that shouldn’t have degraded in the first place.
Without the physical device, experts must rely on medical records and general knowledge about the device model, which is a far weaker foundation for a claim.
If a port is being removed and legal action is a possibility, these steps can help protect the evidence:
Tell the surgeon before removal that you want the device preserved and returned to you, and get confirmation
Ask that the removed port be placed in a sterile, labeled container and given to you or a family member
Don’t allow the hospital to send it back to the manufacturer without your permission
If fragments were retrieved from the bloodstream through a separate procedure, preserve those as well
Store the device in a cool, dry place, and don’t attempt to clean or examine it yourself
Ask your medical team for the device’s exact name, manufacturer, model, and lot or serial number, which is often recorded on an implant card or in the operative report, and keep a copy for your records
Contact an attorney promptly so they can arrange for proper preservation and expert examination
In wrongful death cases, this is especially urgent. Family members may not realize how important the device is during the emotional aftermath of losing a loved one, and once it’s disposed of, that evidence is gone for good.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if my port catheter complication was caused by a defect or just bad luck?
There’s no way to know for certain without expert analysis of the device and your medical records. Warning signs worth raising with an attorney include fracture or migration without an obvious cause, similar reported problems with the same device model, or infections that recur despite good care. An attorney can help arrange the kind of expert review needed to answer the question.
What if my hospital already disposed of my removed port?
It can make the case more difficult, since the physical device is often the strongest evidence of a defect, but it doesn’t automatically end your options. Medical records, imaging, and expert analysis based on the known characteristics of the device model can sometimes support a claim without the physical device, though the strength of that evidence depends on the specifics of your situation.
Can I pursue both a product liability claim and a medical malpractice claim?
Yes, in some cases. If a device was defective and it was also selected, implanted, or monitored negligently, both theories can potentially apply to the same injury. They have different deadlines and different proof requirements, so it’s worth having an attorney evaluate both angles rather than assuming only one applies.
Do I have a claim if I don’t have a Bard PowerPort but a different brand of port catheter?
Possibly. The same legal principles for product liability and medical malpractice apply regardless of the device brand. Ongoing litigation over a specific device model can be useful context, but a claim depends on the facts of your own case, including your device, your complications, and your medical records.
If my port was recalled, does that automatically mean I have a case?
Not automatically. A recall is meaningful evidence that a manufacturer identified a real problem, but you’d still need to show that your specific device falls within the recalled model and lot, that the recalled issue actually caused your complication, and that you suffered a compensable injury as a result. An attorney can help match your device records against the recall details.
How soon should I talk to an attorney if I suspect a defective port caused my injury?
As soon as possible. New York’s deadlines for these claims are strict, evidence like the removed device can be lost or destroyed quickly, and some of the most important protective steps, like preserving the device, need to happen at or near the time of removal. A consultation can clarify your options even if you haven’t decided whether to move forward.
Summing It Up
Port catheter complications like fracture, migration, and infection sometimes reflect the ordinary risks of an implanted device, and sometimes point to a design, manufacturing, or warning defect.
The difference usually comes down to patterns, timing, and expert analysis of the device itself, which is why preserving evidence and acting quickly matter so much.
Porter Law Group represents New Yorkers harmed by defective medical devices and medical negligence, working with experienced medical and engineering experts to evaluate each client’s case.
If you believe a defective port catheter caused your injury, call 833-PORTER9, email info@porterlawteam.com, or reach us through our contact page for a free, confidential consultation. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
This article is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for medical advice from a qualified healthcare provider or legal advice based on your specific circumstances.
