Location:

2224 1st Avenue North
Birmingham, Alabama 35203

Main:  (205) 326-3336
Fax:  (205)-326-3332
Toll Free:  1-800-241-9779

Mailing Address:
Post Office Box 11310
Birmingham, Alabama 35202

Guidant/Medtronic Sudden Cardiac Arrest and Implantable Cardiac Defibrillator (ICD)

Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death in the United States.  There are an estimated 325,000 deaths from it each year. An implantable cardiac defibrillator, or ICD, is a small electronic device implanted in the body to detect sudden cardiac arrest and to deliver an electrical shock to return the heart beat and rhythm to normal.  The ICD is implanted inside the chest to prevent sudden cardiac arrest caused by life-threatening and abnormally fast heart rhythms (tachycardias). The ICD is capable of monitoring the heart rhythm. When the heart is beating normally, the device remains inactive. If the heart develops a life-threatening tachycardia, the ICD delivers an electrical shock to the heart to terminate the abnormal rhythm. Sudden cardiac arrest is averted, and the heart returns to normal.

Guidant and Medtronic Admit Defects

Several manufacturers make ICDs. Two of those manufacturers, Guidant and Medtronic, have recently acknowledged defects in their ICDs. Heninger Garrison Davis represents hundreds of patients who received these defective ICDs.

Our attorney Bill Bross recently appeared on the North Carolina TV program "Lawyers on Call" to discuss his investigation of the ICDs made and sold by Guidant and Medtronic. Click the image above to view his remarks.

If you or a family member has an ICD, please consider this information:

• Sudden cardiac arrest claims a life every two minutes.

• Over half the victims of sudden cardiac arrest have no prior symptoms, and for 85 to 90 percent of victims, the sudden cardiac arrest is their first cardiac event.

• Sudden cardiac arrest is not a heart attack. It is caused by abnormal electrical stimulation of the heart.

• Sudden cardiac arrest is an emergency and is treated by immediate defibrillation (electric shock) of the heart.

• Survival rates are excellent, as high as 90 percent, if treatment occurs within minutes of the event.

If you or a family member has an ICD manufactured by Guidant or Medtronic, please be aware of this information:

• In June, 2005, Guidant announced that it was recalling 50,000 of its ICDs, 75 percent of which are in use (or were in use at that time) in the United States.

• The recalled ICDs, according to the evidence for the recall, can short circuit and malfunction, causing them to fail when needed.

• Guidant ICDs have malfunctioned at least 45 times, as of the date of the recall, leading to at least two deaths.

• In February, 2005, Medtronic announced that its ICDs may fail due to defective batteries. The defect affects devices sold in years 2001, 2002, and 2003.

   

  To ask us about Guidant/Medtronic ICDs, please fill out and submit our confidential questionnaire, or contact our attorney Bill Bross by email at wlbross@hgdlawfirm.com, or phone Heninger Garrison Davis at 1-800-241-9779.