Early in 2005, Medtronic Inc from Minneapolis, Minnesota, posted a voluntary notice to the medical field about the defective batteries for these devices: Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICD) and Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Defibrillator (CRT-D). The batteries had been manufactured during the period of April to December 2003. The defective devices include the subsets of the Marquis VR/DR and Maximo VR/DR ICD models and the InSync I/II/II Marquis and InSync III Protect CRT-D. Once this defect was detected, Medtronic quickly began to correct it, so the batteries manufactured after 2003 function properly and have been approved by the FDA.
These ICD and CRT-D devices are used for the treatment of an irregular heartbeat, just like a pacemaker and are placed under the collarbone to send an electrical shock to regularize the heartbeat. The notice said that there is the danger of an electrical short of the batteries in these devices. This shorting would cause the battery to be depleted and therefore, it would make these devices stop working within just a few hours or a few days.
There are many people in the world who depend on these devices to live. Medtronic wants to compensate for these defective batteries that may be found in 87,000 apparatus. Medtronic has proposed to replace the device, which costs $20,000 and pay thousands of dollars for additional expenses. However, there has been no established offer to pay for the necessary operation to replace these devices.
There have been no deaths or injuries reported from this defect yet. It has been calculated that the ratio of possible failure is that of 1 in 10,000 devices, and even then, the failure will most likely occur in the last half of the battery life. Therefore, the risk still remains relatively low. There have only been found 9 implanted devices that contained these faulty batteries on people.
It is advised to ask your doctor if you have either of those devices, to find out if yours could be among the faulty ones. This being the case, you are entitled to reimbursement from Medtronic. If you have experienced shocks with no apparent reason, or any sort of discomfort, it may also be an indication of the existence the defective battery, and in this case, it must be acted upon fairly quickly.