Edwards Lifesciences Corp. said it’s fighting a $40.1 million punitive damage award stemming from a product liability lawsuit.
The Irvine device maker has asked the Washington State Court of Appeals to review a Snohomish County, Wash.’s jury verdict against it in the case of a man whose heart was burned by a malfunctioning monitor.
A judge upheld the jury’s decision and in March ordered Edwards to pay the damages to Paramijt Singh of Mount Vernon, Wash.
Singh’s heart was damaged by a malfunctioning Edwards monitor. The jury found that Edwards failed to warn users about the dangers of the monitor.
Edwards had said in March that it didn’t believe that the award would hold up on appeal and that the problem that caused the monitor malfunction had been rectified.
Singh, 54, checked into Providence Everett Medical Center in 2004 for cardiac bypass surgery when an Edwards monitor malfunctioned, causing a catheter to overheat and burn his heart, said Paul Luvera, one of his lawyers.
Edwards, which had blamed Providence Everett and said the hospital used a damaged cable, was also ordered to pay the hospital $310,000.
