5 years ago
By Victor Blackwell First Coast News
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- "I miss him a lot. I really, really miss him a whole lot," said son, Robert Smith.
Smith says at age 75, his father Bobby died too soon.
"I got a call and he said, 'you better hurry home, they found your daddy dead," said Smith
Despite his defibrillator, Bobby Smith died of a heart attack in May. An activity report sent from the defibrillator showed no response from the device on the day he died.
A defibrillator should send an electric charge to a person's heart to get it beating regularly if an irregular heart beat is detected.
One month later, the Indiana-based Guidant Corporation recalled the Prizm 2 Defibrillator, the same model that Bobby Smith had.
"I had a friend call me up and showed me the Times," said Smith. "He said, 'I got this piece of paper you gotta read.'"
In May of this year, The New York Times detailed problems with short-circuiting in the Prizm 2, first found three years ago.
Now, Robert Smith is the first member of a class-action lawsuit against Guidant.
The company acknowledges 28 failures and two deaths including Bobby Smith's. But his family says acknowledgment is not enough.
"If the device had probably worked properly, my dad would still be living today," added Smith.
Friday, Guidant spokesperson Steve Tragash issued this statement: "Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Bobby Smith. The safety and well being of patients is our top priority. We constantly monitor and evaluate the safety profile of our products and take appropriate action based on that evaluation. In this case, we took immediate steps to determine whether there was any connection between the patient's death and our defibrillator. The device was provided to Guidant for testing with agreement of the family's attorneys. Guidant's review of the information has concluded that the device behaved normally and was not involved in the patient's death."
First Coast News