Continuum Wellness News » medical implants http://continuumwellness.org/blog Body, Mind & Soul Wellness Sat, 12 May 2012 15:38:09 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Medical Devices Shielded from Lawsuits http://continuumwellness.org/blog/medical-devices-shielded-from-lawsuits/ http://continuumwellness.org/blog/medical-devices-shielded-from-lawsuits/#comments Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:08:38 +0000 continuum wellness http://continuumwellness.org/blog/?p=25 Read more »]]> If you have a problem with your heart and decide to go the medical device route and have a defibrillator implanted and there is a problem with it, you cannot sue for personal injury. If you have breast implants this holds true also.

Manufacturers are immune from any liability claims. Thanks to the current crop of Supreme Court justices if a manufacturer’s device has approval from the FDA and it meets the agency’s specifications, you have no grounds to sue if a problem ensues. Individuals who felt is if they suffered and sought damages did so in the state courts. There was no federal legislation until this ruling.

Examples of devices that have been the subjects of recent lawsuits include:

  • an implantable defibrillator
  • a heart pump,
  • a spinal cord stimulator
  • a drug-coated stent
  • an artificial heart valve
  • prosthetic hips and knees

The decision affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit by a patient who was injured during an angioplasty when a balloon catheter burst while being inserted to dilate a coronary artery. The device won F.D.A. premarket approval in 1994, two years before the incident. The patient, Charles R. Riegel, died after the lawsuit was filed, and the case was carried on by his widow, Donna. click here for the rest of this story

Thoughts: Cultivate your health and well-being daily. Keep your own knees and hips and all the rest of you tip-top. You have within you, an amazing capacity to heal.

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