Heart stent attorneys note allegations of dangers, including death, arising from the use and reportedly fraudulent overuse of cardiac stents in patients. If you or a family member has undergone a heart stent procedure that you suspect was unnecessary, contact Attorney Group today for your free, no obligation consultation. We can review your case, help you determine if you have a claim, and connect you with an experienced cardiac stent attorney.
What are Heart Stents?
Heart, or cardiac, stents are typically implanted into heart attack patients or those who have significant blockage in their arteries that can often lead to heart attacks and strokes. According to the National Institute of Health website:
A stent is a small mesh tube that’s used to treat narrow or weak arteries. Arteries are blood vessels that carry blood away from your heart to other parts of your body. [D]octors also may place stents in weak arteries to improve blood flow and help prevent the arteries from bursting.
Stents usually are made of metal mesh, but sometimes they’re made of fabric. Fabric stents, also called stent grafts, are used in larger arteries.
Some stents are coated with medicine that is slowly and continuously released into the artery. These stents are called drug-eluting stents. The medicine helps prevent the artery from becoming blocked again.
Overuse of Stents Linked to Fraud, Death
Despite the apparent benefit to patients who have suffered heart attacks or have severe arterial blockages, overuse of heart stents by doctors and hospitals in patients who may not actually have a need for the devices have allegedly resulted in the injury to and death of patients, along with allegations of fraud. According to a recent article from Bloomberg News:
Among … elective-surgery patients in stable condition … overuse, death, injury and fraud have accompanied the devices’ use as a go-to treatment, according to thousands of pages of court documents and regulatory filings, interviews with 37 cardiologists and 33 heart patients or their survivors, and more than a dozen medical studies.
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Stenting abuse is by no means the norm, but neither is it a rarity. Federal cases have extended from regional medical centers in Louisiana, Kentucky and Georgia to a top-ranked metropolitan hospital system in Ohio.
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Even the low end of these estimates translates into more than a million Americans in the past decade with implants in their coronary arteries they didn’t need. [U]nnecessary stents cost the U.S. health care system $2.4 billion a year…. [P]atients who received them are living with risks including blood clots, bleeding from anti-clotting medicine and blockages from coronary scar tissue, any of which can be fatal….
Recipient of a Heart Stent? Contact Attorney Group Today
If you or a loved one has been the recipient of a cardiac stent that you suspect may have been unnecessary, contact Attorney Group today. We will review your case, free of charge and without obligation, and connect you with an experienced heart stent attorney who can help you pursue a claim and, if necessary, file a lawsuit to recover damages to which you may be entitled. The time to file a lawsuit is limited, so contact Attorney Group today.
