Hansen v. Baxter Healthcare Corp.

In the 1880s, in Germany, Otto Luer came up with the idea of a 6% taper as a way of putting a stopper in a bottle, keeping it there, and then getting it out again. Many years later, Luer’s taper was used by hospital equipment manufacturers to ensure that one piece of IV set tubing would fit into another.

This case is about the IV sets manufactured by Baxter Healthcare Corporation (Baxter). And it is about the injuries and death suffered by Andrina Hansen (Andrina) when Baxter’s IV set tubing came apart.

Andrina’s estate and her survivors sued Baxter under a products liability theory. The jury…