When discussing liability in medical injury cases, we often focus on the idea of ‘negligence.’ There is a good reason for this, as in most cases when it comes to, say, a bad batch of medicine or a medical device that is misdesigned. So, where does strict liability for defective medical devices come into play?
Medical Device Defect Types
Three types of defects can occur with a medical device. These are design defects, manufacturing defects, and warning defects.
For most design and warning defects, someone was negligent when planning the device packing or issuing the warnings. This doesn’t take away from the importance of the defect.
However, for many manufacturing defect cases, it doesn’t matter how careful the manufacturer was in creating the process that made the device; if the device was poorly made, and that fault in the device itself caused injury, the manufacturer may be liable.
Strict Liability for Defects
This kind of liability is termed strict liability in legal circles. While the improvement of all sorts of factory automation processes and the care most manufacturers take to ensure the quality of their products makes these cases somewhat rare, when they occur, the results can be devastating to a patient or family involved.
For example, a hip replacement recipient gets an artificial hip that, due to some defect in the manufacturing of that particular unit, breaks and causes the individual to fall. Not only will that individual need a new surgery to replace the defective hip, but he or she may also have suffered further injuries in the fall, requiring more medical interventions and expenses as well as pain and suffering.
Manufacturing Defects for Medical Devices
Manufacturing defects generally occur when the product does not work as designed due to some problem with the materials, parts, or construction done in assembling the device. The main problem in these cases is usually proving that the defect directly caused the injury involved. Those who have been hurt due to a defective medical device may wish to consider contacting an experienced Houston defective medical device liability lawyer.
