Law Makers Move to Return Patients' Right to File Medical Device Injury Lawsuits
In recent weeks, patients injured by Medtronic defibrillators have watched in pain as judges around the country dismissed their medical injury lawsuits. Law makers' recent plans to reintroduce patients' rights, give them reason to cheer.
Democratic lawmakers are working on plans to reintroduce legislation that would return patients' rights to sue medical device companies for their injuries. In February 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that patients injured by the use of defective medical devices, like Medtronic defibrillators, could not file a lawsuit against the company if the device had received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Since then, judges around the country have cited the Supreme Court decision numerous times, using it as an excuse for throwing out hundreds of lawsuits including several against Medtronic. .jpg)
On February 17th, a judge in Wisconsin dismissed a lawsuit filed by a 63-year-old man who needed surgery to remove a Medtronic device after the company warned that the batteries may suffer from a sudden depletion of power causing it to malfunction. Earlier this year, a judge in Minnesota dismissed hundreds of Medtronic injury lawsuits brought by injured patients.
With the new administration, however, it seems like patients may have their right to sue companies like Medtronic returned to them. House democrats, Henry A. Waxman of California, who also serves as the chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, and Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey, plan to introduce legislation that would nullify the Supreme Court ruling. Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Patrick Leahy of Vermont sponsored a similar bill last year which could be reintroduced later this year.
At the crux of the Supreme Court decision last year was the belief that the FDA, as the country's chief drug and medical device safety agency, could be trusted to approve a product only after ensuring it was entirely safe to use. Since then, we have seen evidence of the agency's ineptitude, not only in the number of defective drugs that seem to enter the market like contaminated Heparin and Vioxx, but also through the whistle blowing efforts of its own staff who allege that the agency's approval processes are questionable. In this situation, where companies attempt to push their products through approval processes as quickly as possible and the FDA continues to lurch from one food and drug safety scandal to another, the only losers are patients who end up with no recourse to civil justice after they suffer injuries. Several lawmakers, medical injury lawyers, and patient advocates have strongly voiced their opposition to the 2008 Supreme Court ruling. With a new administration in power, however, it seems like change is finally coming to American civil justice.
Medical Injury Lawsuits
Going up against big medical device manufacturers like Medtronic can be intimidating. In conjunction with laws prohibiting your right to justice, however, it can seem impossible. Our team of medical injury attorneys can help you find the resources you need in such a situation.
If you have been injured by the use of a defective medical device, contact a medical injury lawyer at Arnold & Itkin LLP to learn how you can begin to recover compensation for your suffering.
