Defibrillator recalls common
From Times wire reports
Portable defibrillators that have jolted thousands of hearts back to life in airports, malls and homes are often subject to product recalls, finds a decade-long study of the complex devices.
“The chances that your [automated external defibrillator] would be recalled in any given year was 1 in 20. The chances that your [device] would be recalled during the entire 10-year study period was 1 in 5,” said Dr. William Maisel of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, who reviewed Food and Drug Administration advisories on the devices.
During the study, there were 370 reported cases in which someone died after a defibrillator malfunctioned, according to the report published in the Aug. 9 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Assn.
