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A Georgia woman has filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging that her husband's implanted heart device exploded and caused a fire that killed him and their 3-year-old son, WSB-TV in Atlanta reports.
Fatou Nguda Secka alleged Panasonic Corporation of North America and Panasonic Energy Corporation of America -- who manufactured the battery cells in the device -- and the managers of the family's apartment complex were liable for the deaths of her husband, Muhammedou Tarawally, and their son, Matarr Muhammedou, in the lawsuit filed earlier this month.
“I lose my life, it was my life,” Secka told WSB-TV on Wednesday (December 20).
The incident took place on December 25, 2022, when the HeartMate 3 Left Ventricular Assist System (HM 3) “catastrophically failed when its System Controller, due to a manufacturing defect in one of the battery pack’s three battery cells internally shorted, overheated, and experienced a thermal runaway," according to court documents obtained by Law and Crime.
“As a result of the thermal runaway, the battery cells in the HM 3 System Controller combusted and/or exploded, and the HM 3 Device stopped pumping Mr. Tarawally’s heart, causing Mr. Tarawally’s death,” the lawsuit states.
Tarawally had the device implanted in May 2022 to control the beating of his heart. The HeartMate3 Left Ventricular Assist System is supposed to alert the individual of any harmful conditions with activating lights, sounds, on-screen messages and symbols and should be powered for at least 15 minutes in situations where it experiences a power loss, as attorneys for the family acknowledged in the lawsuit obtained by Law and Crime.
The family also claims that there was no smoke detector or fire alarm sound, no activated sprinklers, nor any response from the apartment complex's "fire watch" at the time of the incident. The fire department was, instead, notified after a neighbor in a wheelchair smelled and saw smoke coming from upstairs and called his nephew who, upon arrival, pulled the fire alarm in a breezeway.
Tallaway's body was discovered badly burned on his bed and his son, who died of smoke inhalation, was located at the foot of the bed.
“It’s just a horrific scenario,” said attorney Mike McGlamry, who represents the family in the lawsuit.