Canada recently certified a class action lawsuit against Guidant (now Boston Scientific) for allegedly marketing known faulty defibrillators to nearly 2,000 Canadian citizens – over one quarter of who have already had to undergo risky surgery to replace them.
Same products – different country
If you think you’ve already heard this story – you’re half right. Guidant / Boston Scientific settled their defibrillator litigation for $240 million last year. However, the same products were also sold in Canada, so this class action involves the same products, but in a different country.
How it started
Similar to the U.S. class action, the Canadian class action alleges that Guidant / Boston Scientific made important changes to a number of their defibrillators, but continued to sell the faulty defibrillators it had in its inventory for three years without warning anyone about the problems – patients or doctors.
How it will likely end
Industry experts predict that Guidant / Boston Scientific will likely settle the Canadian lawsuit in the same manner as it did in the U.S. as the company seems to have known that it was selling a faulty, and potentially dangerous, device that has caused a quarter of the nearly 2,000 Canadian patients to undergo further risky surgery to have their implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) replaced.
Continuous controversy – and not just for Boston Scientific
The 2007 U.S. settlement and the recently certified Canadian class action aren’t the only controversies surrounding Boston Scientific. The company issued a product advisory in January 2008 concerning several other models of its ICDs and CRT-Ds (cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators) – which are used to shock or pace the heart. It reported that nearly 88,000 patients may have had their units incorrectly implanted and that they may fail as a result. Boston Scientific isn’t the only company to have problems with their implantable devices. Medtronic,St. Jude and Cardinal Health have recalled similar products in the past year.
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