Hate to Break Your Heart: Companies Lie about Product Safety
Note: We find it interesting that while the media reports (thankfully) on the problems with drug and medical device safety with a certain level of intense indignation - after all, knowingly harming patients is pretty low - the complete protection of vaccinations despite mounting evidence of problems continues. It's a blind spot the size of a mountain (of money....) From The Wall Street Journal on defibrillator problems.
From Christopher Weaver of The Wall Street Journal: In December 2010, St. Jude Medical Inc. STJ +0.21% issued a warning letter to doctors: Wires inside Riata defibrillator leads—cables that connect the heart to implantable defibrillators—were sometimes breaking through their insulation from the inside out.
The problem, which ultimately led to a recall last year, could cause defibrillators to send unnecessary jolts to the heart or fail to deliver lifesaving shocks to return chaotic heart rhythms back to normal. The company said it had identified dozens of cases with visible signs of the problem, and pulled Riata from the market.
For many doctors, this was the first notice of a problem with Riata.
But before that 2010 warning, physicians including Alan Cheng, director of Johns Hopkins Medicine's arrhythmia service; Samir Saba, chief of electrophysiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; and Ernest Lau at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, Ireland, say they had encountered this so-called "inside-out abrasion" in their own practices between 2006 and 2009. When these doctors brought the incidents to the attention of St. Jude they say they were told by company officials and field representatives that the incidents were isolated. The malfunctions described by the doctors didn't result in deaths. Read more HERE.
I really object to articles on the AofA like this .
These companies always have our best interests at heart , and they are not out to destroy our health for financial gain . Just look at the recent Thalidomide admission from the German manufacturers , they came clean and have been totally honest about it , it was a huge mistake , they have paid out compensation to the 10,000 , the individuals involved have made personal public apologies , and I believe they have returned all their salaries and pensions .
Oh sorry maybe I've got mixed up with another story ...thats right , they offered a begrudging apology 50 years after event and only did that because tey were comepletely boxed in .
And then there is the Minimata story , they supressed the poisoning for 50 years , and destroyed all dissenters .
Are you seeing a pattern ? Maybe dear old Wakefield will have to wait for the blue plaque on his birthplace until after he passes on .
Please dont tell me Brian Sneer will ever be getting one , for what , services to mass poisoners !
Posted by: NeSSuM_200 | October 12, 2012 at 04:09 AM
I give up!
Posted by: Benedetta | October 11, 2012 at 08:20 PM
I cannot make this stuff up???
My daughter allowed herself to have a vaccination of not only a tetanus shot but the DTaP. Five whole weeks ago.
And I keep reading how the siblings of the kids with autism is going to be the ones that do something about it.
I think my son with autism will be takening care of his crazy sister.
Posted by: Benedetta | October 11, 2012 at 08:19 PM
"... And where is the FDA on this???? Didn't the FDA have to approve these devices? ..."
*************
I'm sure it did. Just like it routinely approves all manner of drugs and medical devices, that go on to injure and/or kill countess thousands.
That is what the FDA does, yet no-one at the FDA is ever held accountable. Just like when a drug kills thousands of people , and not a single drug company executive is ever held criminally responsible. All that ever seems to happen, are a series of media headlines about the FDA levying their "biggest ever" fine against some corporate acronym. Which for all we know, never actually gets paid to anyone.
The FDA as a protection agency make no sense whatsoever. The FDA as a fake protection agency, who's real goal is a big pharma enabler... make far more sense.
It seems the fox is guarding the hen house
Posted by: Barry | October 11, 2012 at 05:57 PM
And where is the FDA on this???? Didn't the FDA have to approve these devices? This goes back to another big scandal that didn't get enough media play. A group of FDA scientists blew the whistle on their own managers after the managers approved unsafe medical devices. The managers, many of whom are MD's, retaliated and tried to launch a criminal investigation against the scientists. I think the matter is now in court.
Former FDA Scientists and Doctors Sue FDA over Secret Surveillance
http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/former-fda-scientists-and-doctors-sue-fda-over-secret-surveillance?news=843965
Posted by: Sarah | October 11, 2012 at 09:28 AM
"When these doctors brought the incidents to the attention of St. Jude they say they were told by company officials and field representatives that the incidents were isolated ..."
It should surprise absolutely NO ONE that "company officials and field representatives" dismissed the "incidents" as being "isolated".
Indeed .. the ongoing .. consistent failure .. of the medical profession to "voluntarily report" life-threatening failure of medical devices and other common mistakes committed while "treating" patients in US health care facilities was the MAIN reason given by the book "To Err is Human" .. as an explanation for the book's conclusion that more people die ANNUALLY in the United States as a result of MEDICAL ERROR DURING TREATMENT .. than die in vehicle accidents or a whole host of other major causes .. such as .. AIDS or cancer.
According to the book .. no one is eager to voluntarily report a "mistake or error" has been committed .. because of the personal financial liabilities involved .. as well as .. the potential loss of licenses or other professional sanctions the report will surely generate.
Many speak of a "blue wall of silence" when complaining about police departments willingness to protect their own from prosecutions of excessive use of force .. but .. in reality .. the "white wall of silence" the medical profession has constructed is far more incidious and threatening to the health of all.
Posted by: Bob Moffitt | October 11, 2012 at 08:11 AM