Bair Hugger Plaintiffs Not Entitled to VitaHEAT Device Docs, MDL Judge Rules

MINNEAPOLIS — The judge overseeing the Bair Hugger Forced Air Warming Devices MDL has held that the plaintiffs are not entitled to documents concerning another patient-warming system because they do not establish that a safer alternative design existed for the Bair Hugger.

On April 13, Judge Joan Ericksen of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota agreed with a magistrate judge that the patient-warming system uses a different type of heating technology than the Bair Hugger and is therefore a “substantially different product.” As such, the documents sought by plaintiffs are not relevant to their allegations that …