People with a Medtronic or St. Jude implantable defibrillators should know that some of these defibrillators’ lead wires—specifically in the Medtronic Sprint Fidelis and St. Jude Riata lead wires—have fractured, perforated patient heart walls, or caused device failure. In some cases, these malfunctions of the Medtronic Sprint Fidelis Lead and the St. Jude Riata Defibrillator Lead have led to additional cardiac procedures or complications and even death.
Implantable defibrillators are meant to keep the heart beating regularly and to shock the heart back to its proper rhythm in the event the heart stops. A defibrillator lead is a thin wire attached to the heart wall that delivers an electrical impulse via the defibrillator. When a defibrillator wire detaches or breaks, the device will fail leaving a patient at risk for death because the device does not sense the need for a shock, is unable to deliver the shock, or delivers an unnecessary shock. If the wire perforates the heart wall, the heart can bleed into its pericardial sac causing cardiac tamponade, a lethal condition where pressure builds around the heart preventing it from beating effectively. Unfortunately, heart perforation is generally discovered after the wire has made it through the heart wall.
