Medtronic Inc., the medical device manufacturer so often in the news lately, is in the news again. The company is facing a class action lawsuit in Canada for failure to warn patients about defective batteries that were installed in defibrillators.

The Canadian lawsuit

Filed in Toronto Canada, the latest class action lawsuit against Medtronic involves a series of defibrillators that contained defective batteries. Defibrillators are devices that are implanted into a patient’s chest that send electrical shocks to the patient’s heart to maintain a steady heart rhythm. The devices run on long lasting batteries, but some of those batteries were defective and placed patients at risk or caused them to undergo surgery to have them replaced.

Medtronic has faced similar lawsuits in the United States over the past two years after it announced the recall of its Marquis line of defibrillators in 2005 that were linked to several deaths. Industry experts allege that the company knew about the defective batteries as early as 2003, but did not recall them until 2005. Medtronic agreed to pay $130 million in October 2007 to settle over 2,500 claims against it – but that only covered patients in the United States.

U.S. lawsuits

In addition to defective battery issues, Medtronic has seen a flurry of lawsuits since it recalled its Sprint Fidelis defibrillator lead (model numbers 6930, 6931, 6948 and 6949) on October 15th 2007 after it concluded that the lead wire may fracture – causing the defibrillator device to unnecessarily shock the heart multiple times when not needed or fail to shock the heart when required. Leads are tiny wires that attach a defibrillator to the heart itself. At least five deaths have been linked to the Fidelis which is implanted in nearly 235,000 patients worldwide.

Due to the Fidelis recall, Medtronic has been sued several times by patients and shareholders. The patient lawsuits generally allege that the company was negligent, failed to warn them of the defects, caused them physical injury, intentionally and negligently inflicted emotional distress, breached implied and express warranties, that the company was unjustly enriched, that patients will need additional medical monitoring and have or will suffer economic losses.

Shareholder lawsuits generally allege that Medtronic knew about the defective leads several months before the recall and that the company made false and misleading statements to investors. The shareholder’s suits seek damages for any investor who purchased Medtronic shares between June 25th 2007 and October 15th 2007 – the date of the recall. The company’s stock dropped nearly 20 percent after that date.

If you or a loved one has been injured due to faulty defibrillator lead wires, contact an attorney whose practice focuses in this area of law. To contact an experienced attorney in your area, please click here.