Medical Equipment Defect Lawyer in Philadelphia
When you go to the hospital or doctor’s office, you expect and want to believe you are in good hands and that you will receive the best care possible. If you are sick or injured, the only thing on your mind is healing, and you believe the hospital is the safest place to be. You believe the equipment, medical supplies, and technology is safe, working properly, and up-to-date. Sadly, in a tightened economy full of budget cuts, this is not always the case, and people are often left with catastrophic injuries and death due to defective or malfunctioning medical equipment and devices. Each medical device you encounter, from the IV, to the blood pressure machines and heart monitors could pose a potential risk to your health if they are not properly maintained, or if they were manufactured or designed defectively. An improperly serviced or defective defibrillator, or one that is lacking batteries, for example, can mean the difference between life and death.
Thousands of people suffer from chronic pain, failing organs, and debilitating diseases that require extensive medical care. New and exciting technology has led to state-of-the-art medical treatments like replacement knees and hips, stents and balloons to repair arteries around you heart, artificial heart valves, pacemakers to keep your heart beating correctly, and catheters that can automatically distribute medication to parts of your body. Medical devices can allow people to live longer, healthier, happier lives. Sometimes, however, these medical devices can become their worst nightmare.
Every year medical equipment and devices are recalled for manufacturing defects, flawed design, and contamination, usually after an innocent victim has already suffered or death. The news has been flooded with stories about defective hip and knee implants that fail to work properly, or end up releasing toxic metal and contaminants into someone’s bloodstream. Metal on metal hip implants pose more of a significant risk of injury than other replacement hip implants. The metal ball and socket have been found to rub together during movement or exercise, causing metal pieces to break off the device, entering the individual’s bloodstream, leading to damage to bone and tissue, toxicity, and excruciating pain.
Certain surgical and lifesaving equipment like tracheostomy tubes, catheters, and surgical mesh are reported as having caused catastrophic injury and death due to a defective part or flawed design, rendering them potentially lethal. Recently, synthetic bone grafting material has elicited reports of abnormal bone growth, swelling in the neck and throat, and causing sterility, along with reports of doctors hiding these adverse side effects from the public. Boston Scientific issued a recall of over 100,000 heart catheters after discovering that a brittle material used in the catheters could cause the tip to break off inside a patient, causing serious tissue damage, blood vessel injury, or death, and require emergency corrective surgery. Defective IV systems and pumps can administer too little or too much medication to a patient, broken monitors can fail to keep track of a patient’s blood pressure or oxygen levels, and diagnostic equipment can fail to diagnose someone of a potentially life-threatening condition. The Food & Drug Administration is charged with assessing, regulating, and recalling potentially dangerous medical devices, but a recent Senate report has called for enhanced assessment of recalls of medical devices, arguing that there are inadequate procedures in place to determine if recalled products have been repaired, or if the FDA needs to recall medical devices if the manufacturer will not voluntarily issue recalls.
Defective medical devices and failing medical equipment can cause catastrophic injuries, permanent side effects, and death. Unfortunately, the defects in medical equipment are often caused by manufacturing errors, flawed design, and human error, like failing to maintain and repair equipment, and failure to recognize when medical products are not working properly. Negligence in the maintenance of medical devices can lead to very painful and life altering consequences for patients, like you, your spouse, your children, or parents.
The experienced Pennsylvania defective medical equipment, product liability, and medical malpractice lawyers of Reiff & Bily have seen the devastating effects defective of failing medical devices can bring to victims, family members, and loved ones. We understand that negligence in hospitals and doctors’ offices can cause catastrophic injury, enormous medical bills, pain and suffering, and wrongful death, and we firmly believe negligent manufacturers, hospitals, and medical staff must be held responsible for their mistakes. For over three decades, our Pennsylvania defective medical equipment lawyers and Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyers have aggressively fought for the rights of those catastrophically injured at the hands of those they trust the most, and we have earned hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation to help with medical expenses, rehabilitation, pain and suffering, lost wages, and funeral expenses. We are greedy for justice. If you or someone you love was catastrophically injured or wrongfully killed due to a defective or failing medical device, contact one of our product liability lawyers for a free, no obligation consultation.
