Guidant Defibrillator – An Insight

Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (IDCs) refers to medical devices that are implanted in the heart of the chest patients to regulate and monitor arrhythmia (heartbeat) by generating electrical pulses. Guidant corp., one of the manufacturers of IDC admitted that it failed to warn the consumers and doctors about the defect in one of their defibrillator models. Faults included memory errors and short-circuiting. In the year 205, the United States federal Food and Drug Administration announced to recall 50,000 defective medical devices for potential malfunctioning that might cause serious injury or even death. This recall affected 11 IDC models of Guidant. Many class action lawsuits have been filed against the company and all the cases have been tried under one judge.

Guidant’s Trial May Turn Victorious for Claimants

Only few months after the United States Food and Drug Administration suggested that the patients implanted with Guidant Defibrillator visit their doctors to ensure the safety of medical device, Boston Scientific faced another reality, the impending trial of plaintiff Leopoldo Duron, Jr. In a pre trial order released on November 28, 2006, the United States District court of Minnesota set the Duron’s trial on July 16, 2007.

Duron’s trial will be the first case of few “bellwether” cases, comprising those of Leland Braund (September 10, 2007), Joyce Valls (November 5, 2007), Eugene Clasby (August 13, 2007) and Stanley Beranek (October 9, 2007). Due to the failure of Boston Scientific, there is high possibility for the plaintiffs to win those cases who claim that Guidant tried to hide the faults from both the doctors and patients.