Battery problems with the Medtronic HeartWare Ventricular Assist Device (HVAD) causes 6 more patients to suffer personal injury and another one to die
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dtronic HeartWare Ventricular Assist Device (HVAD) device caused the wrongful death of more than 3,000 people since it was introduced on the market more than 10 years ago. The sale and distribution of the heart pump was stopped in June last year but many patients still have the pump implanted in them. Now some of the batteries powering the device might be deadly too.
Medtronic announced last May that a model of battery that was powering the Medtronic HeartWare Ventricular Assist Device (HVAD) was defective and that it could cause serious personal injury or death if it was not changed for a new battery. An urgent Medical Device Correction letter was sent out by Medtronic to all affected customers on May 5th recalling 429 devices manufactured in April 2021. Then a month later, after the company received 1,159 complaints including 6 injuries and one death, the recall of the same model of batteries was extended to those that were distributed since January 2009.