Chicago woman receives heart device without consent, physician paid royalties
October 17th, 2008 joshua
A Chicago woman has filed a lawsuit against a surgeon for implanting a heart device without her consent.
In the court filing, according to Forbes, the surgeon was receiving royalties from the company whose device he installed.
Dr. Patrick McCarthy is being accused of implanting the Myxo ETlogix rings in Toni Vlahoulis without receiving her consent. The lawsuit also contends the device was experimental, though it was commercially available.
McCarthy receives royalty payments from Myxo. Medical device and big pharmaceutical manufacturers have been criticized for accepting inflated royalty payments in exchange for promotion of their products.
Criticism falls on physicians who allow these allegiances to the manufacturers, who are often guilty of deception in a rush to get a new device or drug on the market, to override their better medical judgment.
In this Chicago case, McCarthy is being accused of implanting the Myxo rings in a patient without her consent, though the hospital where the surgery was performed, contends Vlahoulis did consent.
Vlahoulis required a corrective surgery to erase the first operation. She is seeking $50,000 in the case.
McCarthy told Forbes he donates the royalties he receives for promoting Myxo to a local charity, the Greater Chicago Food Depository. His royalties, about $30-50 per device, according to what he told Forbes, are donated to the charity, which collects no more than $7,000 annually.
