Associated Press, "Patients call doctors after Guidant recall"

          Nervous patients called their doctors Monday to have potentially faulty implanted heart devices checked out after the company offered to replace thousands of them because of flaws.
          For 44-year-old Alan Black, the potential for a short circuit in his defibrillator was enough to convince his doctor to schedule replacement surgery for June 30. The Lock Haven, Pa., resident got his device in 2002.
         "It's really terrifying," said Black's wife, Angela. "This is something we've depended on and were told would save his life, but now we're not so sure. You've got to look at the risk of infection, the risk of scar tissue. But that risk was nothing compared to the risk of sudden death."
          Black's device, the Prizm 2, is one of seven models the company announced on Friday had flaws. Some of the devices have memory problems and can be reprogrammed without removal. But nearly 29,000 of the defibrillators - 20,000 implanted in U.S. patients - can't be fixed externally.
         Guidant said Friday it would pay for replacement of those defibrillators if patients' requested it. The announcement followed weeks of public criticism that the company had withheld safety information.
          An implantable defibrillator senses an irregular heart rhythm and shocks the heart back into correct beating pattern. The seven different models recalled by the company have malfunctioned at least 45 times, resulting in at least two deaths.
          Stock analysts predicted the recall could cost Guidant up to $400 million. The Guidant devices cost between $20,000 to $35,000.