Medtronic Lawsuit Lawyers

Other Defibrillator Problems

In July of 2005, Guidant, a medical device firm based in Massachusetts and recently bought out by Boston Scientific, recalled their internal defibrillators following safety concerns. Their devices, unlike Medtronic’s, were subject to short circuiting.

Also similar to Medtronic, Guidant was criticized for not recalling their defibrillators earlier. Apparently, they wrote a letter to doctors in January of 2005 recommending to doctors that they not use their devices but didn’t actually recall the defibrillators until July of the same year. They never actually sent the letters out either. Medtronic has recently been criticized for waiting until October to recall their defibrillator leads when doctors began telling them of a high incidence of lead wire breakage in January of 2007. Guidant decided not to recall their devices earlier because they didn’t want to subject patients to what they deemed unnecessary device replacement surgery that could also be very risky.

Medtronic’s leads are not only susceptible to breakage. A recent study shows that the leads also aren’t quite sensitive enough to be useful. Apparently, only 1 out of every 17 defibrillators implanted actually saves a life. This is commonly due to the leads’ lack of sensitivity.

Guidant recently settled with a lot of people that sued the company following the recall of their defibrillators. Even more recently, the company expanded the settlement because the problem was larger than they thought it was. Medtronic also recently settled a large number of their lawsuits. They too expanded the settlement.

The similarity between the two recalls is striking. It makes one wonder what exactly the FDA is doing when they approve these medical devices if two different companies that are completely independent of each other are facing almost identical problems with their leads.

If you or someone you know has been implanted with a Medtronic defibrillator, contact the Medtronic Lawsuit Attorneys of Williams Kherkher at 1-866-950-9000.