Recalled Medtronic Defibrillators Still Claiming Victims
April 21st, 2008 amy
The long-lasting detrimental effects of the recalled Medtronic defibrillators are far from over, as evidenced by the tragic story of one self-proclaimed “Medtronic victim” who recently wrote into the website lawyersandsettlements.com.
After suffering a massive heart attack during a semi-pro football game, at age 23 this young man was told his football career was over, and that he would need to be implanted with a heart defibrillator. His problems with the defective defibrillator leads began about three months later, when he suffered four unnecessary serious shocks to his heart — a common problem with the defective Medtronic defibrillators. The young man says the Medtronic rep who greeted him at the hospital blamed the defect on the device being set incorrectly. A few months later, during a work-out, he suffered four more shocks. Again, the device was reset.
“As time went on,” he says, “I then recieved a letter late 2004 from Medtronic to contact my Dr about certain defects regarding my device. I spoke with my Dr early 2005 and he said that I need to schedule a replacement surgery pronto. This procedure he said is life threatening.”
It took him a few months to recover from the dangerous replacement surgery. A few months later, he saw a news report stating that Medtronic knew about the defective devices and still put them out there for profit. And then was paying doctors kickbacks to help promote these defective products.
“Receiving this info put me in a state of depression,” he said. “I looked at the situation like if I can’t trust my own doctor who can I trust. Medtronic made billions off the people by selling the people defective devices.”
Medtronic finally recalled the defective and dangerous Sprint Fidelis leads on On October 15, 2007, saying the wire that connects the Medtronic defibrillator to the heart could fracture, delivering massive and life-threatening electrical shocks unnecessarily. At the time of the recall, five deaths were already been linked to the problem.
