FDA Warns That Impella Heart Pumps Are Linked To 49 Deaths Globally
The tiny pumps can puncture the heart wall, and despite the FDA's concerns, they will be allowed to remain in use. Separately, a biased organ test that kept thousands of Black people from kidney transplants is finally being changed.
The New York Times:
Heart Pump Is Linked to 49 Deaths, the F.D.A. Warns
A troubled heart pump that has now been linked to 49 deaths and dozens of injuries worldwide will be allowed to remain in use, despite the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to issue an alert about the risk that it could puncture a wall of the heart. The tiny Impella pumps, about the width of a candy cane, are threaded through blood vessels to take over the work of the heart in patients who are undergoing complex procedures or have life-threatening conditions. (Jewett, 3/29)
AP:
A Biased Test Kept Thousands Of Black People From Getting A Kidney Transplant. It's Finally Changing
Jazmin Evans had been waiting for a new kidney for four years when her hospital revealed shocking news: She should have been put on the transplant list in 2015 instead of 2019 — and a racially biased organ test was to blame. As upsetting as that notification was, it also was part of an unprecedented move to mitigate the racial inequity. Evans is among more than 14,000 Black kidney transplant candidates so far given credit for lost waiting time, moving them up the priority list for their transplant. (Neergaard, 4/1)
Stat:
U.K. Decision On ALS Drug Has Neurologists, Advocates Up In Arms
Neurologists and patient advocates are up in arms over a policy decision by a U.K. health agency that they say will imperil access to an ALS treatment that’s available in the U.S. and on its way to approval in the European Union. (Joseph, 4/1)
