Surgery is necessary to remove a fractured lead or to replace a dead battery, carrying with it the usual risks of surgery, such as infection and other complications.
Fractured Sprint Fidelis leads led to many serious injuries and several deaths, and as a result, there was a worldwide recall of the product.
Problems with the leads also caused lawsuits against Medtronic to be filed across the country. The company stopped making the Sprint Fidelis lead in 2007, and in 2010, it reached a $268 million litigation settlement with victims of the device.
But the litigation is not over. That is because today, anyone who received a Medtronic defibrillator after 2004 and is still using it, could have a defective Sprint Fidelis lead inside her. The product can still injure users.