Tom Lamb at Drug Injury Watch has written about the spate of lawsuits filed in Sprint Fidelis cases, and Medtronic’s potential defense, based on the recent Reigel decision. Here’s a brief excerpt. Please read Tom’s post.
The November 4 hearing has to do with Medtronic’s motion to dismiss based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Riegel v. Medtronic case, wherein the medical device manufacturer was granted immunity against legal liability for any injury or death caused by another Medtronic product based on the doctrine of preemption.
There is proposed legislation which would serve to reverse the Riegel decision that has been introduced in the House of Represenatives and is expected to be introduced in the Senate after the July 4th recess.
We will watch for legislative developments regarding these two new federal bills that would protect the legal rights of patients who have been injured or killed by a defective and unsafe medical device, such as the Medtronic Sprint Fidelis lead wires, which were the subject of an FDA Class 1 recall in October 2007.
