A Delaware federal magistrate judge ruled last week that St. Jude Medical Inc. must defend part of a products liability suit claiming the Minnesota-based medical device maker had negligently manufactured a spinal cord stimulator that was implanted in a Maryland woman.
The ruling, from U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher J. Burke, jettisoned claims by Kathleen M. Freed that St. Jude had failed to live up public guarantees regarding the safety of its spinal cord simulator, which was surgically implanted in her during a procedure at Newark’s Christiana Hospital in 2014. Though the procedure was intended to be permanent, Freed said she had the device removed less than one year later, after complaining that it had caused painful electric shocks and burning.
