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Defective Medical Device Case Allowed to Go Forward

 

The Recorder (1/11, Graham) reports, “A state law tort claim of failure to warn about risky medical devices is not pre-empted by the federal medical device law – so long as the state law duty of care runs 'parallel' to a duty established by the federal law. That brain-twisting holding Thursday by an en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit could expose manufacturers of hundreds of high-risk medical devices to hefty state tort damages.” As the Recorder notes, “the ruling in Stengel v. Medtronic is a win for plaintiffs and for Judge John Noonan, who dissented from a panel decision last year finding pre-emption.” The piece goes on to describe the case in more detail.

Reuters (1/11, Baynes) notes that the US Food and Drug Administration had approved Medtronic's pain pump in 1988. In the current case, plaintiff Richard Stengel had had the device surgically implanted in his abdomen to provide his spine with pain relief medication, However, he was diagnosed with permanent paralysis by 2005. The Ninth Circuit ruled that he may pursue a state-law claim against Medtronic.

 

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