Events

Recall of Puritan Bennett 980 Series Ventilator System

According to Department of Health, Therapeutic Goods Administration, this recall involved a device in Australia that was produced by Covidien Pty Ltd.

What is this?

A correction or removal action taken by a manufacturer to address a problem with a medical device. Recalls occur when a medical device is defective, when it could be a risk to health, or when it is both defective and a risk to health.

Learn more about the data here
  • Type of Event
    Recall
  • Event ID
    RC-2014-RN-01326-1
  • Event Risk Class
    Class I
  • Event Initiated Date
    2014-12-18
  • Event Country
    Australia
  • Event Source
    DHTGA
  • Event Source URL
    https://apps.tga.gov.au/Prod/sara/arn-detail.aspx?k=RC-2014-RN-01326-1
  • Notes / Alerts
    Australian data is current through July 2018. All of the data comes from the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration, except for the categories Manufacturer Parent Company and Product Classification.
    The Parent Company and the Product Classification were added by ICIJ.
    The parent company information is based on 2017 public records. The device classification information comes from FDA’s Product Classification by Review Panel, based on matches of recall data from the U.S. and Australia.
  • Extra notes in the data
  • Reason
    Following an investigation initiated by customer complaints, a capacitor in the screen of the device has failed and this has on some cases been accompanied by a burning odour, smoke or visible haze emanating from the display. this has caused the display to dim (reduced illumination) or go blank (loss of illumination), and has in some cases prompted the caregiver to transfer the patient to an alternate ventilator.In all cases the ventilator continued to provide ventilatory support to the patient when this has occurred. no reports of fire, serious patient injury or death associated with this issue have been received and an engineering assessment and external consultant evaluation, have determined that future occurrences, if any, of this capacitor failure would present a low probability for a fire to propagate within or outside the display enclosure.
  • Action
    Covidien will update all affected ventilators to LED illumination display, which does not utilise a backlight inverter (BLI) and thereby completely eliminate any future potential for this component failure. This action has been closed-out on 17/08/2016.

Device

Puritan Bennett 980 Series Ventilator System

Manufacturer

Covidien Pty Ltd
  • Manufacturer Parent Company (2017)
    Medtronic plc
  • Manufacturer comment
    “If our surveillance systems identify a potential performance issue, our personnel promptly evaluate the problem, including, when appropriate, conducting root cause investigations and internal testing to assess whether the product continues to meet specifications and defined performance criteria,” Medtronic told ICIJ in a statement. “In some cases, based on this evaluation, Medtronic may determine that a recall is necessary.” The company said that it communicates with healthcare providers and/or patients and provide recommendations to address such issues. Medtronic noted that these communications can include letters, emails, calls, press releases, physician notifications and social media postings, as well as informing the FDA and other regulators of the actions.
  • Source
    DHTGA