Tens of millions of Americans and tens of thousands of Arkansas residents live with medical implants such as artificial joints, surgical mesh, and heart defibrillators, while countless more rely on external medical devices such as blood glucose monitors to not only keep them healthy, but keep them alive. If you are one of these individuals and suffered a medical accident because of a defective device, you may be owed considerable finances by the manufacturer. Our law offices have experience reaching substantial settlements and lawsuit awards in cases that involve transvaginal mesh injuries, Benicar blood pressure medication injuries, Xarelto drug injuries, and much more. As new medical devices and drugs come onto the market, there is always a chance that they will come with serious side effects and even cause death.
What Protections are in Place to Safeguard Consumers?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) keeps an updated list of medical device recalls, which you can access yourself to see if your device has been taken out of the market for safety reasons. However, this is not an exhaustive list. It is kept to include only the most serious medical device recalls because those pose a reasonable chance of injury or death for the average person. Many dangerous devices are kept on the market for years or even decades, negatively impacting more and more people as the years go on. Unfortunately, the FDA is severely underfunded in terms of being able to test every drug or medical device thoroughly before it gets sold to U.S. consumers. Because of this, thousands of people die or become severely injured or disabled every year. The medical device manufacturing business is a $100 billion-a-year industry, and quickly pushes through thousands of products every year that are risky and receive almost no medical oversight, according to Scientific American. Four deadly devices that cause serious injuries and fatalities for thousands of consumers every year include hip implants, heart valve rings, defibrillator leads, and surgical mesh.
Future of Medical Devices
As technology continues to make leaps and bounds every year, more and more medical devices will come onto the market. For example, a new EKG reading device that pairs with an iPhone recently received the financial backing of the Mayo clinic, according to Business Insider. An EKG reading device analyzes a patient’s heart, which is important screening procedure against things like stroke.
Thousands of new high-tech devices will hardly go through any serious FDA testing at all, let alone the rigorous procedures that they demand in order to ensure patient safety.
Call a Jonesboro Personal Injury Attorney at Once
While there is nothing that anyone can do to take back the serious injuries you or your loved one has suffered, through legal steps we can help to sway the financial situation in your favor. Contact the Jonesboro, Arkansas attorneys of Wells & Wells today for more information on what we can provide for you in this time of need. Call us today at 870.782.4084.
https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/medical-device-safety/medical-device-recalls
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/four-medical-implants-escaped-fda-scrutiny/