From the El Paso Times September 12, 1997
By Laura Smitherman
After the anesthesia took effect on Armida Macias, doctors implanted a device in the back of her neck that was supposed to free her from a two-year struggle with pain.
She woke up a paraplegic, she said.
Thursday -- five years later -- Macias settled a medical malpractice lawsuit against her doctor, anesthesiologist, and surgeon in County Court at Law No. 3. Another lawsuit against the implant manufacturer is scheduled for trial in October.
"I just lay there," she said of the nine days she spent in a hospital bed after surgery. "I couldn't move. All I did was stare at the ceiling. And I started thinking, 'Why am I like this,' and then it just hit me."
Medtronic Inc., one of the world's leading medical device manufacturers, defends the implant as a long-awaited relief for those suffering from chronic pain. The company, with $2.4 billion in annual sales, spends almost $280 million each year on research and development of such products.
The small implant delivers low-energy electronic signals to sites in the spinal column to block pain signals before they reach the brain.
But Macias and her lawyer, Les Weisbrod of Dallas, said Medtronic is responsible because the company doesn't include the proper warnings with their product.
Weisbrod also filed a complaint about the implant with the Food and Drug Administration with the support of the doctors named in the Macias lawsuit. The El Paso doctors are Dr. Gregory Misenhimer, Dr. Richard S. Westbrook and Dr. Lynn Neill.
Weisbrod said Medtronic should recommend running MRIs (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) or CT scans to measure available cervical epidural space, or suggest an alternative surgery.
But company spokesman David Reid said his company is not in the business of instructing doctors on medical practice.
"We intend to continue to vigorously defend these actions," he said. "This is a product that has been used since 1967 and has been well established since the early 1970s. The device and labeling have been approved by the FDA."
