Medtronic recalling 2000 defibrillators

Jon

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Medtronic Inc. is recalling nearly 2,000 automatic defibrillators that may not work properly.

The company said the machines may not correctly analyze a patient's heart rhythm, possibly preventing the machine from defibrillating the heart when it is needed.

The recall covers 1,924 Lifepak 500 AEDs made in 1997, the company said. Automatic defibrillators analyze heart rhythm in people that may be having a heart attack and, if necessary, shock the heart back into rhythm.

Medtronic said it has received 54 reports of instances involving this group of defibrillators, including eight cases where it may have prevented patient resuscitation.

The company said the devices being recalled are part of the first generation of automatic defibrillators and represent about 1 percent of the machines in use.

http://www.emsnetwork.org/artman/publish/article_14237.shtml
 
This is scary - At least Medtronic isn't going to play Access CardioSystems and dissapear :( .

My work has about 25 of these. I will be checking the 3 I have access to this evening, and passing this on to my superiors to make sure they are aware.

My question is why did it take 8 years to find a problem?

Jon
 
Hopefully there is not a trend between the old and the new, that would just suck!

We just bought six LP 500's less than two weeks ago. The sales guy said we should replace them every five years (either the whole unit or the batteries).
 
Originally posted by Blueeighty8@Mar 4 2005, 03:54 PM
Hopefully there is not a trend between the old and the new, that would just suck!

We just bought six LP 500's less than two weeks ago. The sales guy said we should replace them every five years (either the whole unit or the batteries).
I'm sure he is talking about the batteries.

At least none of the ones here at my work are in the recall.


Jon
 
We have a few of these. I've informed my captain.

We have lots of Medtronics LP12s and have had horrible trouble with battery failures.
 
We purchased 12 of these AEDs at my last job while I was there. I just e-mailed the info off to a few of my co-workers so that they can check.
 
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