Unsafe Drugs: Drug Pump Production Stopped

Cardinal Health has stopped producing four of its Alaris drug infusion pumps. The decision was spurred by the FDA requested that U.S. marshalls confiscate 1,300 pumps from the company's facility. The pumps have been linked to at least two deaths because of an oversensitive keypad.

Cardinal Stops Production of Defective Drug Pump after FDA has U.S. Marshalls Confiscate Devices

The FDA says that the keypad in the pump causes "key bounce;" this leads to a number that has been entered into the keypad being recorded more than once. For example, if the intended dose was 3.5 mL/hour, this would be erroneously recorded into the machine as 33.5 mL/hour, thus causing huge potential for severe overdose. The FDA has not recalled defective pumps already in hospitals. Approximately 140,000 Alaris pumps have been distributed worldwide over the last 12 years and many of these pumps remain in use.