Medtronic defended the Minnesota judge on Friday, saying that “this is clearly an effort to remove a well respected judge following rulings the plaintiffs’ lawyers do not like.”

Richard H. Kyle, Jr., works for a Minneapolis based law firm with offices in the Midwest, China, and Mexico. Kyle’s bio on the firm’s website states that he is “a shareholder in [the firm's] White Collar & Regulatory Defense, Health Care Fraud & Compliance and Litigation Groups.”

The website also says that Kyle “is one of the top 40 criminal defense lawyers in Minnesota by the Minnesota Journal of Law and Politics.” Medtronic says that Kyle is not a part of its legal defense and has never represented the company.

Medtronic is the world’s largest medical device manufacturer. Its Sprint Fidelis defibrillators were removed from the market in 2007 because of faulty wires that shocked patients unnecessarily. The defibrillators are blamed for numerous injuries and deaths.

According to the Associated Press, Judge Kyle is “not aware of any formal attempt to remove him from the case.” He also said that that he felt no need to disclose his son’s relationship with the law firm because his son practices criminal law and “would not work with a company like Medtronic.”

Judge Kyle claims that he threw out the lawsuits against Medtronic because the company’s faulty devices had been deemed safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration. The doctrine of pre-emption, a legal premise that took shape during the Bush administration, allows federal laws to trump state laws. Therefore, since the federal government said that the Sprint Fidelis defibrillators were safe, people harmed by them cannot turn to state law and thus have little or no legal recourse.

Which begs the question: if judges, politicians, and FDA regulators are all attached to big corporations, can the FDA’s stamp of approval on medical devices and drugs ever be trusted to protect the American people?

SOURCE: Sprint Fidelis Lead Recall › Judge tosses medtronic lawsuits, doesn’t disclose son’s ties

Implantable cardioverter defibrillators, or ICDs, provide shocks to stop hearts from potentially dangerous rapid beating. They treat patients at risk for sudden cardiac death, which is the leading natural cause of death in the U.S. In February 2005, Medtronic warned of a potential battery shorting problem in various Marquis-brand defibrillators. According to the Wall Street Journal, 11,000 of the machines were surgically removed and replaced with a different device in the U.S. and 2,000 more such removals took place overseas. The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) classified Medtronic’s action as a Class II recall. In a Class II recall, there is either a possibility that the device will cause temporary or reversible health problems, or there is a remote chance that the device will cause serious health problems.

Plaintiffs in the suits against Medtronic argued that the company knew for years that there was a potential for product defects but sold its stock of potentially defective devices and didn’t advise patients that safer devices were available. The company has argued that it fulfilled every obligation in terms of reporting the problem, including seeking and receiving FDA approval in 2003 to implement battery design changes. Yet in spite its claims that it acted properly, Medtronic is now settling thousands of defective Marquis Defibrillator Lawsuits. The company will pay a total of $114 million, as it settles 2,682 cases for $95.6 million as well as $18.5 million in attorneys’ fee.

Medtronic, the largest manufacturer of ICDs, has had other problems with many of its devices. In April 2004 Medtronic announced that it was recalling its Micro Jewel II Model 7223Cx and the Medtronic GEM DR Model 7271 ICDs after they had been linked to at least four deaths and one injury. Medtronic said at the time that some of the recalled defibrillators failed to charge properly, resulting in the late delivery or no delivery of cardiac shock therapy. In January 2007 the FDA announced that the agency started an investigation looking into accusations by a former Medtronic engineer that the medical-device company didn’t sufficiently test its new Concerto cardiac device for patients with congestive heart failure. The Concerto device is one that can resynchronize the heartbeat of a patient and also provide backup defibrillator capability to save the patient’s life if the heart goes into cardiac arrest.

In October 2007, Medtronic announced that it was suspending sales of the Sprint Fidelis lead, a vital component in its implantable defibrillators. According to Medtronic, the Sprint Fidelis lead, a wire that connects the Medtronic defibrillator to the heart, could fracture inside a patient’s blood vessel, delivering a massive electrical jolt. This malfunction can cause extreme pain, or in the worse case scenario, it can be fatal. At least 5 deaths have already been linked to a malfunctioning Sprint Fidelis lead used with an implantable Medtronic defibrillator.

January 1st, 2008 by Staff with NewsInferno.com

SOURCE: Sprint Fidelis Lead Recall › Medtronic settles defective defibrillator lawsuits for $114 Million

In Canada, 2,416 patients had the Medtronic defibrillators implanted as of February 2005, with 613 of them having been removed or replaced as of June 2007.

In 2005, Medtronic announced that it was recalling two heart defibrillators because they had been linked to at least four deaths and one injury. These devices are used to shock the heart into normal rhythm after patients suffer irregular heartbeat or fibrillation, which are rapid, life-threatening arrhythmia’s, originating in the lower chambers of the heart.

The defibrillators are implanted surgically in the chest. When a cardiac arrhythmia occurs, the capacitor is charged and the device delivers the appropriate shock. Medtronic said that some of the recalled defibrillators failed to charge properly, a defect which can result in the late delivery or no delivery of cardiac shock therapy. Medtronic had actually discovered the problem with its defibrillators in 2003, but did not disclose the problems immediately.

In October, Medtronic agreed to pay $130 million to settle U.S. claims it hid the defects in the defibrillators, $55 million more than it proposed in a July settlement, people familiar with the agreement said at the time. The company agreed to the higher amount after more claims were filed over the heart defibrillators than the parties expected, the people said.

But the October settlement was not the end of Medtronic’s defibrillator woes. That same month, Medtronic suspended sales of the Sprint Fidelis Leads after receiving reports of 5 fatalities linked to lead fractures. A lead is a wire that connects an implantable defibrillator to the heart. It is through the lead that a defibrillator is able to sense when a patient’s heart rhythm is out of sync. When it breaks, the defibrillator can emit a massive and painful shock. And in the worse case scenario, the fractured lead can prevent a defibrillator from sending a necessary, lifesaving shock to the heart.

Just last week, lawyers for Medtronic went before the US Supreme Court to ask that people injured by defective medical devices and drugs should not be allowed to sue manufacturers if those products have been approved by the Food & Drug Administration.

December 10th, 2007 by Staff with NewsInferno.com

SOURCE: Sprint Fidelis Lead Recall › Medtronic dfibrillator cass ation lawsuit gets go ahead in Canada

The leads were implanted into hundreds of thousands of patients who are now at risk of serious injury if their Sprint Fidelis Lead malfunctions. All unused leads were recalled by Medtronic on October 15, although Medtronic is actually referring to the recall as a “voluntary market suspension.” Leads that have been suspended contain the model numbers 6930, 6931, 6948 and 6949 either by themselves or at the beginning of a longer model number. Patients who have defibrillators manufactured by Guidant and St. Jude may also have the Medtronic Sprint Fidelis Lead implanted in them and should consult their physicians to discuss their options.

Sprint Fidelis Leads that have already been implanted are not being removed because surgery to remove a fractured lead wire is risky and can cause tearing or scarring of the heart tissue and veins that house the lead. There is currently no test to predict whether or not a lead will fracture and malfunction, meaning that patients have no way of knowing whether their lead could stop working in the future.

Lawsuits have been filed against Medtronic alleging the company is responsible for causing injury to defibrillator patients. A class action lawsuit was filed on October 15 in Minnesota, seeking compensatory, injunctive, equitable and declaratory relief. The plaintiffs claim that Medtronic misrepresented and concealed the safety and possible defects of its Sprint Fidelis Leads in order to protect profits. The suit also seeks relief for unjust enrichment and medical monitoring.

According to a letter from Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe of Public Citizen to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), more than 1,600 injury reports were filed over the past two years, with more than 750 reports listing “inappropriate shocks” as being received by the patient. One of the patients in the Minnesota lawsuit alleges he received 47 unnecessary shocks from his defibrillator because of the faulty wires, resulting in surgery to remove the defective lead.

The letter also notes that the Minneapolis Heart Institute contacted Medtronic in February 2007 about problems related to malfunctioning leads. An article by researchers at the Minneapolis Heart Institute compared lead failures in Medtronic’s Sprint Fidelis and Sprint Quattro models. The study found that the Sprint Fidelis Lead had a higher risk of fracturing than the Sprint Quattro. In fact the Heart Institute was so concerned about defective lead wires that it stopped implanting them in January 2007.

The Sprint Fidelis Lead is actually a wire that attaches the Medtronic defibrillator to a patient’s heart. It works by administering a corrective electric impulse to the heart in patients who have abnormal heart rhythms. However, the leads are prone to fracturing which can cause them to malfunction, resulting in them not delivering a shock when necessary or delivering a series of painful shocks when not necessary. Either situation can be fatal.

There is some concern that young adults and children are at a greater risk of lead fracture because the Sprint Fidelis leads are a smaller diameter than other products and were used frequently in younger patients. Patients who are more active may put additional stress on the Fidelis leads.

If you are concerned that you have been implanted with a Sprint Fidelis Lead, check your patient card that identifies which implanted devices you have. If you do not have a patient card, or are still uncertain as to what devices were used, contact your doctor for more information.

October 30th, 2007

SOURCE: Sprint Fidelis Lead Recall › Patients concerned about Medtronic Sprint Fidelis leads