The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) handles recalls related to defective and dangerous auto parts. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) handles recalls of most defective consumer products. And when it comes to recalls of food,...
Defective Medical Devices
Philips-brand CPAP machines recalled over serious health risks
Sleep apnea is just one of many different sleep disorders that affect a large portion of the American populace. Sleep apnea is a condition in which a person has trouble breathing unassisted while asleep, and often cannot sleep at all without the use of a specialized...
FDA allowed dangerous heart pumps to be implanted in thousands of Americans
ProPublica recently released an investigative report on the serious defects of the HeartWare Ventricular Assist Device (HVAD). This is an electronic heart pump produced by Medronic which allows a compromised heart to regain normal function. It is often used as a...
Medtronic recalls heart pumps after failures kill 2 people
Medical devices often perform life-or-death functions for the patients who rely on them. Given how important reliable functioning is in a device that might regulate someone’s health and well-being, medical devices are subject to testing and should meet strict...
Beware of toxic agents used in MRIs
When most of us go to the doctor or to the hospital for routine procedures, we want to be able to trust the medical professionals working with us to be cautious, to use the right techniques and to avoid using methods and materials that are inherently dangerous. For...
Boston Scientific To Pay $30M For Selling Defective Defibrillators
Boston Scientific and its child company, Guidant, recently settled a lawsuit with the Department of Justice (DOJ) for knowingly selling defective defibrillators. Guidant must pay $30 million. According to the government, Guidant discovered that two of its...
Women Disproportionately Injured By Medical Devices
The American Association for Justice (AAJ) recently analyzed the history of women's medical products and found that women are disproportionately harmed by devices. The research is particularly unsettling because women in the modern era seem just as likely to be harmed...
Device Manufacturer Cautioned By FDA For Meningitis Advertising
The effects of the fungal meningitis outbreak extend across the entire medical industry. One area the contaminated steroid injections have influenced is the treatment of meningitis. As hundreds of victims suffer through the deadly illness, the victims and their...
Transvaginal Mesh Has Caused Thousands Of Women To Suffer
For many years, surgical mesh was routinely implanted in women who underwent pelvic organ prolapse (POP) or stress urinary incontinence (SUI) surgery. Mesh manufacturers boasted that their products were wondrous: Improving the success of surgeries while reducing...