Medtronic Recall Costing Medtronic Millions

The recall of Medtronic's Sprint Fidelis leads is costing Medtronic millions of dollars already. The obvious and immediate cost to the company is due to the fact that medical professionals and the public will lose confidence in the company and stop using their products. It has been reported that the October 15 recall has already had a negative impact on sales of $130 Million Dollars. When heart patients and cardiologists lose confidence in the Medtronic product, they will look at competing products and/or consider foregoing getting a defibrillator.

There will also likely have to be payouts to the thousands of patients who have the defective leads implanted in their heart. We are representing these claimants in these claims against Medtronic. Although the payouts will not occur in 2007, Medtronic and its shareholders are well aware that these payouts will need to be made in the near future. Furthermore, legal fees and attorney fees are already being incurred by Medtronic. Individual Personal Injury Lawsuits have already been filed in Minneapolis and Puerto Rico. There will likely be class action consumer fraud lawsuits as well. A shareholder lawsuit has been filed against Medtronic for witholding information regarding the defects in the United States District Court for Minneapolis.

It seems that Medtronic may have known that the leads were defective well before the October 15, 2007 recall was announced. If this is true, then its deplorable that Medtronic continued to allow doctors to implant the device into patients. The good news is that the legal process will allow us to get to the bottom of what Medtronic knew and when they knew it. The civil justice system allows for discovery of this information through exchange of documents, interrogatories and depositions. The lawyers at Goldberg, Finnegan & Mester will fight to make sure that patients injured as a result of having a defective defibrillator are treated fairly and are adequately compensated for their injuries.

Helping the Uninsured--New Maryland Law is a Step in the Right Direction

The Maryland General Assembly passed a new law that will provide health insurance by expanding Medicaid to about 140,000 Maryland residents who were previously uninsured. This is a huge step in the right direction. It is estimated that about 14% of Maryland residents do not have health insurance. While this new law only provides coverage to a fraction of these people, it is a step in the right direction and it shows that the O'Malley Administration and the Maryland legislature are aware of the problem and are actively taking steps to address it. Of course the bill was opposed by big business groups. This is no surprise. The bill can be seen at: http://mlis.state.md.us/2007s1/bills/sb/sb0006e.pdf

Many of our clients do not have health insurance and this is a true tragedy. These people are unable to get regular checkups (and necessary medications), and when they do get sick or have an injury that requires them to go to the hospital emergency room, they are financially wiped out by the bills. We fight for the uninsured. If people without health insurance are injured as a result of someone else's neglgigence, we pursue legal claims against those repsonsible so as to make sure that our clients can get the care that they need, and pay for the care without becoming financially devastated. We work with many medical providers who agree to provide care to our injured clients with the understanding that they will not get paid until the legal case is resolved.

If you or your family members have been injured in an accident that was not your fault, call us for a free telephone consultation at 301-589-2999.

Medtronic Sprint Fidelis Lead Recall

Medtronic recalled the Sprint Fidelis leads that connect defibrillators to the heart. There are approximately 235,000 patients in the United States who have cardiac heart defibrillators with these recalled leads. Our law firm is representing these individuals in claims against Medtronic. Call us at 888-213-8140 for a free telephone consultation.

Some people with the Sprint Fidelis leads have already had serious complications, and for those individuals, the damages that they have suffered are obvious. Many have had unnecessary shocks and have actually had to have their leads replaced. For other individuals with the fractured Sprint Fidelis leads, their heart defibrillator will not work as it is supposed to, and it will fail to save their life. These people could suffer a heart attack that would not have occurred if the defective leads were not implanted. We believe that even individuals who have not yet had any complications who have the Sprint Fidelis leads have a legal claim against Medtronic as well (they have a defective product that has been recalled attached to their heart, and nobody knows how the defective leads will hold up over time).

The recalled model numbers are: 6930, 6931, 6948 and 6949.

If you or one of your loved ones has a defibrillator call 888-213-8140 for a free telephone consultation.