In recent years, there have been deaths allegedly linked to the use of Medtronic infusion pumps

Since its introduction into the market, the Medtronic infusion pump has been apparently overwhelmed with problems.

In recent years, problems that have been linked to the use of the pumps have reportedly caused dozens of deaths. As such, health authorities and the manufactures are in the process of taking appropriate action, and we’ll be looking in to whether there is any negligence here.

Nature of the device

Medical manufacturer Medtronic released a statement to say that patients have died following a wrong dose which was used through the SynchroMed II infusion pump. The pump is a system that delivers medication into a patient’s spinal canal, and has been implanted in more than 238,000 patients worldwide. It has been used to aid patients with advanced metastatic cancer, chronic pain, and severe spasticity.

Cause of deaths

The cause of deaths have been put down to the “over infusion” of the medication, which was reportedly the fault of the programmed device. It could output more pain medication than necessary in a situation where the correct dosage of pain medication is crucial. In fact, it is a matter of life or death, especially in relation to patients who are physically weak and heavily dependent on the medication.

Long-standing problems

The problems associated with the device have been well-known since 2011, with patients being alerted to safety risks, and recalls were made in 2013.

The reason for one of the recalls was that, during the procedure of delivering the drugs, the patients may receive the drug unintentionally at a higher rate, followed by a period of reduced drug delivery. This could lead to drug overdose and/or an under dose, which can be harmful in both scenarios, and could have adverse medical consequences like respiratory depression, coma, or death.

Liability?

Medtronic has been conducting an ongoing analysis of the affected pumps and its issues that led to the “over infusion” of medication, saying that 103 pumps were affected. However, Medtronic continues to deny full liability, and noted that many contributing factors could have caused the “over infusion” and, consequently, the deaths of the patients.

It’s not uncommon in medical product claims for the manufactures to place the blame elsewhere as we have seen in a vast number of other cases we have dealt with in the past.

We’ll be continuing to keep a close eye on this one.