Medical care is one of the most vital services you will ever interact with. When you go to a doctor you expect a high degree of professionalism and skill as it relates to any care or surgery you receive. This also includes the use of medical devices. It is a reasonable expectation that medical devices provide the results you expect and do safely. However, medical devices do not always perform safely, and to be specific medical device lawsuits usually involve Class III medical devices. When you’ve been injured during medical care you deserve to be made whole. Here is a brief overview of what Class III devices are.
Class III Medical Devices Explained
Broadly speaking, all medical equipment can be considered medical devices. However, Class III devices refer to a specific type of medical devices that are considered at higher risk than other devices but are used because these devices can sustain and support a person’s life or prevent symptoms due to existing health ailments. Common Class III devices include heart stents, insulin pumps, artificial joints, pacemakers, breast implants, and others. Class III devices represent a small part of classified medical devices, only making up 10 percent of all devices; typically, Class III devices are implants, life support systems, and smart devices. A lot of Class III devices also make use of newer or cutting-edge technologies.
Different Types of Medical Device Cases
When you undergo medical care, the goal is to improve your overall health and quality of life. Implants such as pacemakers are designed to help correct serious health concerns and allow you to continue living your life as you see fit. When a medical device fails to do what is supposed to do and worse damages your health, this is quite a traumatic experience. The three main types of device defects are as follows.
- Design Defects: this is an error that occurs during the design and development of a medical device. This can result in failure or harm to a patent due to the device itself not being designed properly leading to malfunctioning when in use.
- Defects During Manufacturing: this type of defect occurs during the manufacturing and assembly of a medical device. This differs from design defects in that the device could be designed safely and do exactly what it should. However, when the device was being physically made, an error occurred.
- Information or Marketing Defects: this is an important but more abstract defect. This type of defect is defined as a failure to provide proper information and can include a lack of warnings, a lack of proper labeling to inform about a device, and outright false claims such as overstating performance.
Why You Need An Attorney
If you’ve been harmed by a faulty medical device, you deserve to have your day in court and to have your side of the story told. That is why you need an experienced attorney to help you through the legal process. Lawsuits are very complex and those involving medical medicine are notably so. By hiring an experienced attorney, you ensure you receive the compensation you are due.
