On July 19, 2005 Guidant Corporation have recalled many pacemakers because of a potentially fatal flaw in nine units of their devices. The company says there have been 69 units from these groups that have undergone some sort of failure. Between 1997 and 2000, 78,000 pacemakers were manufactured and all are suspected to have this defect. Over 18,000 of these pacemakers are still in use today in the United States.

Guidant Pacemakers are small devices implanted into the patient