Medtronic Settles 2,682 Marquis Defibrillator Lawsuits
December 26th, 2007 amy
Medtronic announced Friday an agreement to settle lawsuits for its Marquis defibrillators, for which Medtronic issued a warning letter to physicians in February 2005 due to faulty batteries. The agreement will settle 2,682 cases for $95.6 million, plus $18.5 million in attorneys’ fees.
Medtronic began warning physicians in mid-February 2005 that devices with batteries manufactured between April 2001 and December 2003 could exhibit a shortage which would cause the batteries to deplete quickly and make the defibrillators stop working. Potentially affected models were the Marquis VR/DR and Maximo VR/DR ICDs and the InSync I/II/III Marquis and InSync III Protect CRT-D devices. Approximately 75 percent of these devices were implanted in the United States. Patients with other models of Medtronic devices or these device models with batteries manufactured after December 2003 were not affected.
Medtronic now faces even more lawsuits from its more recently recalled Sprint Fidelis leads. These leads, recalled in October 2007, have been linked to at least five deaths and multiple other injuries. Because the Sprint Fidelis leads are prone to fracture, patients implanted with the defibrillators have been unnecessarily shocked and injured. Others have died when the lead fracture caused the defibrillator to stop delivering necessary life-saving shocks to the heart.
