Medtronic

In re Medtronic, Inc. Implantable Defibrillators Products Liability Litigation, MDL Docket No. 1726 (D. Minn.)

WW filed suit on behalf of United Food and Commercial Workers Unions and Employers Midwest Health Benefits Fund, seeking to certify a class of other third party payors (including other union health and welfare benefit plans), to recover the cost of explant surgery and related medical expenses necessitated by the recall of Medtronic's implantable cardiovertable defibrillators ("ICDs") and cardio resynchronization therapy defibrillators ("CRT-Ds"), which were recalled for prematurely failing after implantation implantation in patients who have had spontaneous and/or inducible life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias, and those patients who are at high risk for developing such arrhythmias. An arrhythmia is a cardiac rhythm that is out of syncopation, which can cause myocardial damage, a myocardial infarction (heart attack) and/or death. The expense of explantation and reimplaintation of replacement ICDs and CRT-Ds is enormous and falls largely on Third Party Payor. WW, a member of the Third Party Payor plaintiffs committee, is at the forefront of seeing that the wrongdoer, Medtronic, pays for its own mistakes. On November 28, 2006, Chief Judge James M. Rosenbaum denied Medtronic's Motion for Summary Judgment based on federal preemption, a significant victory for plaintiffs. For updates on this litigation, review our current news section or visit where the Court has established a website.