How Much do U.S. Medical Device Companies Care About Your Health?

Pearland Medical Device Lawyers Pose the Question: Do U.S. Medical Device Companies Care More About Your Health than They Care About Profits?

Our Pearland medical device lawyers simply leave it as a rhetorical question. We figure that you probably know the answer.

As a case in point, the U.S. Department of Justice has jumped into a lawsuit against Boston Scientific, now owner of Guidant. Guidant is the U.S. medical device company that made the flawed implantable defibrillator device at issue in the case.

The U.S. DOJ's case stems from a private lawsuit filed by a New York patient who received an implantable defibrillator in 2002. According to the lawsuit, the defective medical device malfunctioned after it was implanted. Our Pearland medical device lawyers suspect that the defibrillator device malfunction caused serious pain, trauma, and medical expense to the hapless victim.

A federal regulation rewards those who report Medicare fraud by U.S. medical device companies and other parties. The U.S. DOJ lawsuit alleges that Guidant supplied a defibrillator device it knew to be flawed and fraudulently charged Medicare for that device.

With admirable sang froid, the Boston Scientific corporate attorney says that the company will respond to the U.S. DOJ's intervention as "appropriate." Our Pearland medical device lawyers think that our ideas of what's appropriate might just differ from theirs. After all, the U.S. DOJ involvement comes AFTER Guidant pleaded guilty to multiple counts of related criminal charges.

A federal judge order the U.S. medical device company to pay almost $300 million in criminal penalties, and sentenced the company to three years of probation. The Guidant smack down depressed company prospects and left it open for takeover by Boston Scientific, which has inherited Guidant's considerable liabilities.

To clarify, Guidant discovered problems with various defibrillation medical devices in 2002, 2003, and 2004. But it continued to market, sell, and charge Medicare for these defibrillator device products known to cause dangerous injury and death. It also filed a false report with the FDA.

I don't think we Pearland medical device lawyers need to reiterate the question of whether this U.S. medical device company cared more for your health or for its profits. The answer resides in its guilty pleas to federal criminal charges. Guidant finally recalled the flawed, defective medical devices responsible for at least 13 known deaths in 2005. Clearly Guidant could have used some sensible guidance along the route to ruin.