Guidant Corporation, one of the world's leading manufacturers of cardiac treatment products has faced dozens of lawsuits related to injuries and deaths arising from the use of its Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators or ICDs. The company has been charged with withholding important and pertinent safety information related to the mechanical defects and improper functioning of the ICDs, which put patients at risk for heart attacks and death.

What are Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators?

Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators or ICDs are devices used to treat patients who suffer from tachycardia or accelerated heart rates.  These devices function by administering a mild or massive shock to the heart, depending on the need, to restore the rhythm of the heart when there is an abnormality in the heart beat.  

ICD Defects

Like pacemakers and other cardiac devices, defibrillators are only effective when they work properly and consistently.  Failure to administer a life saving shock to the heart, can result in massive cardiac arrest or even death.  Guidant's ICDs were linked to heart attacks when the device failed to emit the shock due to short circuiting or malfunctioning.   The American Heart Association estimates that close to 24,000 Americans have been fitted with these defective ICDs.  In 2005, as reports of deaths and heart attacks resulting from the defective ICD's began to rise, Guidant Corporation issued a recall of thousands of its ICDs.  The following year, a study by the Food and Drug Administration showed that the failure rate for the ICDs was at least ten times what the company projected.  While Guidant claimed, during the recall of 16,000 ICDs, that approximately 200 would fail, the FDA study showed that at least 40 percent of the recalled defibrillators were prone to malfunction, failing to emit the life saving shock.

Guidant ICD Negligence

In 2007, the company recalled more ICD models.  Patients who suffered injuries and families who lost a loved one because of the ICD defects filed injury lawsuits against the company.  As events progressed, it was found that the company had information of the mechanical defects in these ICDs, but did not release it.  Evidence presented in lawsuits against Guidant has revealed a letter that the company wrote to doctors warning of the defects, which was never sent to the physicians it was meant to caution.