A man from Florida is suing the maker of a robotic surgical tool that he says contributed to the death of his wife during surgery for colon cancer, as reported by NBC News.
According to the man’s claim, the Da Vinci surgical robotic tool, made by Intuitive Surgical, was used during his wife’s surgery and it caused internal burns that contributed to her eventual death.The woman reported having abdominal pains and fever following her surgery and died several months later.
The man filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Intuitive Surgical claiming that the company knew that the Da Vinici had issues with insulation and that could cause burns but had not disclosed it publicly. It alleges that Intuitive Surgical received hundreds of complaints about the robotic surgical tool in the past.
The lawsuit also claims that the company was selling the devices to hospitals without the proper training.
NBC News reported in 2018 that it found evidence of 20,000 adverse events caused by the Da Vinci robot in the previous decade based on information from the FDA’s MAUDE database. While not all of the events were for a single issue, 2,000 reports cited patient injuries and 274 cited deaths.
