Facts

On November 4, 2005, at 8:53 AM plaintiff Adam Kloose (age 18) suffered a cardiac arrest in the Lodi High School gym during PE class. Adam's PE teachers immediately checked his condition and saw that he was not breathing and was non-responsive. Adam's lips began to turn blue. The teachers called for campus security and began CPR.

When other staff members arrived, they called 9-1-1 and retrieved an automated electronic defibrillator (AED), a portable medical device that allows the user to deliver a shock (defibrillation) to restore a regular heart rhythm to a victim of cardiac arrest. One of the teachers opened the Medtronic Lifepak CR Plus AED and it began voice prompts that provided instructions on how to use it.

Two teachers stopped performing CPR to allow another teacher to use the AED. The voice prompts from the AED told the teacher to remove Adam's shirt, which he did. The voice prompts then told him to remove the electrode pads and attach them to Adam's chest, which he also did.

Once attached to the victim's chest, the AED was designed to automatically diagnose potentially life threatening cardiac arrhythmias and to shock the heart back into normal rhythm, if necessary. A shock from an AED is the most effective treatment for sudden cardiac arrest. Immediate defibrillation results in greater than 90% survival from cardiac arrest. With every minute of delay in defibrillation, the likelihood of survival decreases by 10%.

In this case, it was alleged that the Medtronic AED failed to proceed past the voice prompt that instructed the teacher to attach the electrodes to the victim's chest, but rather it looped back several voice prompts only to repeat the same instructions. After three loops of the voice prompts, which took approximately one minute and thirty seconds, the teachers abandoned using the AED and resumed CPR. At this point, approximately four minutes had passed since Adam collapsed on the gym floor.

A fire department truck arrived at the gym at 8:58 AM. The firefighters took over CPR. At 9:01 AM, an ambulance arrived. The ambulance personnel used their AED, which worked properly and shocked Adam's heart back into normal rhythm. They took Adam to Lodi Memorial Hospital, where he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and anoxic encephalopathy.

After his transfer to Kaiser Santa Teresa, Adam received an implantable cardioverter defibrillator ("ICD") that would provide an automatic shock to his heart in the event of another ventricular fibrillation. Adam also received speech, occupational and physical therapy from Kaiser. He suffered memory loss, decreased concentration and personality changes as a result of the anoxia.

Adam had a 3.2 GPA in high school, but had to scale back his classes during his final semester and was able to graduate with significant accommodations. He also could not remember how to play songs on the saxophone despite his impressive prior musical abilities. His subsequent attempts at attending junior college were unsuccessful.

After the incident, an examination of the AED used on Adam Kloose revealed that its battery pack had expired. However, Medtronic's testing of the electronic circuitry of the device after the incident revealed it to be in proper working condition.

In 2006, Kloose filed suit against the defibrillator's manufacturer, Medtronic Inc., and the school district. Medtronic denied all allegations against it including the existence of any product defect or defective design . Kloose resolved his claims against Medtronic confidentially.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS:
Kloose contended that Lodi High School failed to regularly inspect the AED. Kloose further contended that Lodi High School failed to perform any maintenance on the AED and allowed the service contract with Medtronic to expire, despite repeated warnings from the manufacturer.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS:
Lodi Unified School District contended that Medtronic defectively designed the AED.

Injuries

Kloose claimed he suffered brain damage and memory loss.

Result

The parties settled, with the school district paying Kloose $400,000.