A Wisconsin man is suing Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT) in a wrongful injury lawsuit against his local hospital for injuries he allegedly sustained during facial surgery.
Ralph Wellmaker of Brooklyn, Wisc. said he lost the ability to blink his right eye after a doctor struck a nerve in his face while performing surgery to remove a parotid tumor, which is located in the salivary glands.
During the surgery, performed at Touchette Regional Hospital by Dr. Lloyd Thompson, a Medtronic NIM nerve monitoring system failed, according to the complaint, and the surgeon was unable to find the facial nerve that runs through the salivary gland.
Thompson sliced through the nerve, the suit states, and Wellmaker was left with partial facial paralysis for which he seeks $300,000 in damages.
Wellmaker blamed Medtronic for the device’s breakdown and accuses the company of failing to provide adequate instructions, back-ups and fail safes, and for not providing proper warnings about the NIM machine’s potential for inadequacy.
Wellmaker also claims Thompson and the hospital failed to warn him of the risks involved with the surgery, and is suing for mental anguish, permanent disfigurement and emotional anguish on top of his medical costs, the Madison Record reported.
The Fridley, Minn.-based med-tech giant doesn’t need any more legal woes. The company is already under fire for clinical data from its Infuse bone graft trials that critics say were understated by physicians and researchers on the company’s payroll.
MDT is also under a federal spotlight for cutting ties with hospital group purchasing organizations.