Ask any anesthesiologist about their job and they will likely tell you that the hard part is not putting patients to sleep, it’s getting them to wake back up. That is why Spacelabs Healthcare and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are recalling the ARKON anesthesia delivery system with Version 2.0 software due to potentially deadly defects.
According to ARS Technica, the device is used in hospitals across the nation to deliver a mix oxygen, anesthetics, and nitrous oxide to patients during medical procedures. However, it was recently discovered that the software could contain a bug that would cause units to shut down. Such a malfunction in these defective medical devices could result in a patient being seriously injured or killed. This is the second recall of the device announced in the past year.
The discovery leaves many patients wondering what they should do in the event they are harmed as the result of using a faulty medical device. The FDA states that anyone affected by a defective product should report the incident to the agency’s MedWatch system immediately. However, the defective medical device attorneys with Ferrer Poirot Feller Daniel would encourage victims to also discuss their legal options with a qualified attorney as soon as possible.