What Happens if Your Defibrillator Gets Recalled?

So if a company recalls its defective defibrillators -- devices that are supposed to keep your heart from beating too fast or too slow -- and you've already got one surgically implanted in your shoulder, with wires leading to your ticker ... what then?

That's the first question that came to mind when reading about the recent Medtronic recalls. The Baltimore Sun has the best of these articles but buries this information, while the New York Times gives the question a whole article. The answer: unless the defibrillator's malfunctioned -- i.e., told you so via a computer interface, or by shocking you painfully when it wasn't supposed to, or by failing to shock you when you needed it -- then you're better off not messing with it. Trying to fix the devices is a risky procedure unto itself.

If you or someone you know has a defibrillator and is worried about this, the model numbers recalled are 6930, 6931, 6948 and 6949. Give your doctor a call. But try not to worry too much -- it's not like the recalled models are complete pieces of junk. As the Baltimore Sun reports,

The
Sprint Fidelis was introduced in 2004 with thinner leads and was intended to replace the Sprint Quattro leads in use since 2001. But
Medtronic said it noticed that after 2½ years in patients, 99.1 percent of the Quattros were still viable, but only 97.7 percent of the Fidelis leads were still viable. Medtronic said the difference between the two was not statistically significant yet but would have become significant as more Fidelis leads were implanted.

More than 268,000 of the leads have been implanted. Medtronic and the FDA estimated that fractures have occurred in less than 1 percent of those leads.

Heart Device Recall Poses a Quandary for Patients [New York Times]

Sale of heart device wire suspended [Baltimore Sun]

Image: Medtronic

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• IPods Won't Stop Your Pacemaker