Pennsylvania Medical Device Recall Attorneys

Despite the best efforts of Pennsylvania state consumer product agencies, the FDA, and hospitals in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia to spread the word about recalled medical devices, many patients remain dangerously uninformed about the risks associated with certain procedures, devices and prosthetics.

The class of "medical devices" is quite broad and can include products such as:

• Stents
• Prosthetics
• Joint replacement technologies
• Pacemakers
• Defibrillators
• Tissue grafts
• Contact lens technologies
• Hip replacements
• Stitches
• Corneal lasers
• Implants
• Artificial organs
• Valves

Dangers due to medical product defects can range from the inconvenient to the fatal. A drug coated stent used in a cardiac procedure, for instance, may have an adverse reaction in a small percentage of patients. If you are in the majority, chances are the defective stent will never be a problem for you. But if you are in the minority, you may need additional surgery to replace the stent to avoid severe injury or death.

What’s more, the companies who mass produce medical devices--including Guidant Corporation, CryoLife, Boston Scientific Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, and Medtronic--tend to be behemoth institutions. In other words, if you suffer an injury that costs you $1000 or so, you may have a very difficult time pressing a liability claim against the manufacturer of the defective medical device--unless the device caused you serious harm or you can file a class action lawsuit with other aggrieved patients.

It can be difficult to know in advance whether a medical device will cause you harm. It’s ultimately a cost-benefit calculus. If you go in for open heart surgery, for instance, there is a non-negligible chance that the procedure may kill you or cause you serious bodily injury--despite the best precautions of medical technicians and the best technology available. However, just because the patient must engender risk, doesn’t mean that he or she forfeits all rights to file claims if things go wrong.

If you are worried about a specific medical device or procedure, speak about the pros and cons with your physician, and research whether the FDA, other federal or Pennsylvania Consumer protection agencies have issued relevant recalls.

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