Top Four Defective Medical Devices That Cause Patient Harm
When we go to our general care practitioner, or admit ourselves into a hospital for a procedure or emergency care, we expect that we will receive top quality medical attention that will help us to resolve our injury or immediate health need. Few people ever anticipate that machines, equipment or tools used by healthcare professionals will cause us undue harm, or possibly exacerbate medical problems.
Whether equipment is outdated or poorly maintained, or faulty due to a manufacturers defect, medical device malpractice suits are becoming more common. We’ll take a look at the top four sources of device failure and patient injury, and some examples of legal liability and judgements that resulted from health equipment failure and administrative negligence.
Old and Outdated Medical Equipment
State of the art technology is the expectation of patients when they are admitted for care to a hospital. However, increasing burdens and reduced budgets have left many hospitals and primary care facilities trying to stretch the useful life of equipment beyond what may be safe to use on patients.
With all technology there is an aspect of "timed obsolescence" or an average estimate of the useful life of the equipment or tool. This is meant to ensure that the equipment works precisely and to specification as it should, for quality healthcare. Unfortunately, corners may be cut fiscally at the increased risk of injury or medical complications for patients.
To meet with standards and Federal compliance, healthcare institutions have two options when it comes to maintaining medical equipment. They can employ full-time service technicians on staff, who are trained to repair and respond to malfunctioning equipment problems. The second option is to keep the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) on an extended service contract to repair, replace and conduct preventative maintenance. As you can imagine, the OEM method is substantially better in terms of long-term equipment maintenance, but far more-costly to have a service contract with each manufacturer, than it is to employ one or more salaried service technicians.
In 2012 in the case of Nicholson-Upsey v. Touey, a Philadelphia court ruled in favor of the plaintiff, Victoria Upsey, who claimed to have experienced pregnancy complications as a result of a poorly maintained ultrasound machine. In this particular legal case, Upsey was told during her delivery that her infant child was dead, as no heartbeat was detectable through the equipment. Unfortunately, the error caused the child who was mid-labor to remain for an extended period in utero, which resulted in brain damage, after an emergency rush delivery. Upsey was awarded $78.5 million dollars.
Common Examples of Faulty Medical Equipment and Parts
Medical malpractice suits name healthcare institutions negligent and responsible for the use of any defective tools, which may negatively impact patient health outcomes.
Prescription overdose or errors in medication dispensing is one leading cause of injury and death in healthcare treatment facilities. While human error is a factor in many of the cases, some situations can actually be precipitated by faulty valves. For instance, an intravenous drip of a medication is dosed appropriate to the patient and within safety norms, however a single faulty valve on the IV can lead to increased medication flow and overdose, with harmful and even fatal consequences for the patient. Frequently named in personal injury suits are defibrillators (cardiovascular diagnostic equipment), anaesthetic machines (for metered dosing during surgical procedures), blood pressure monitoring equipment, respiratory equipment, assistive devices including lift chairs for bathing patients, and more.
If you think that the reason you are asked not to use your smartphone in the hospital is because it may interfere with a pace maker, you are missing information on the risk that cell phones present to patients. Researchers at McGill University in Canada were some of the first to link equipment malfunctioning with electromagnet interference, which is caused by cellular phones and mobile devices that broadcast Wi-Fi. Interestingly, two-way radios (which are often used by security personnel, police and emergency first response teams) have a stronger frequency wave, which creates more disruption to medical diagnostic equipment. In a world of mobile devices, the challenge is ongoing to reduce EMI disruption in care facilities.
As a patient, you have the right to ask questions when something does not seem correct in your treatment, or with the machinery used by health care professionals to provide healthcare services to you. While not all manufacturers defects can be visually seen, stop your healthcare provider if you feel that a tool or piece of equipment being used may cause you harm. Your intuition may be correct, and can save you from harm.
The legal experts at Carey Danis and Lowe, a St. Louis medical negligence attorney, note that secondary or unrelated complications after receiving care at a hospital may be clearly related to faulty equipment or negligence in many cases. Patients that suspect faulty equipment may be involved should document the experience thoroughly, and then consult with a legal professional.