Medtronic Approved for Sale of Quattro Lead in Japan
December 19th, 2007 amy
Medtronic, the company whose recently recalled Sprint Fidelis leads have killed five people and injured many more, has been approved to sell its Sprint Quattro leads in Japan. The Quattro lead has been in use in the U.S. and in Europe since 2001. Although many doctors had been using the Fidelis leads for their smaller wire diameters, they fell back to using the Quattro leads after the Fidelis leads were recalled.
Medtronic faces multiple lawsuits in the U.S. for patients whose Fidelis leads fractured, as well as lawsuits from those whose defibrillator lead wires haven’t fractured yet but live in fear of the day they will. The dangerously thin wires, when fractured, have caused multiple severe shocks to patients which have killed some people and severely injured others. The fractured leads in other cases have caused the defibrillators to stop sending lifesaving shocks to the patient altogether, resulting in more deaths and dangerous complications.












