$67.3 Million Verdict After Cardiologist and Device Maker Conspired to Implant Unnecessary Pacemakers

In January 2007, Tommy and Barbara Sowards went to MountainView Regional Medical Center in Las Cruces after Tommy was hospitalized for heart trouble. His treating cardiologist, Dr. Demosthenis Klonis, ordered a Biotronik pacemaker implanted. Later, doctors who reviewed the case told the Sowards the device had never been medically necessary.

The lawsuit that followed targeted not just the physician but the entire network behind the decision. Biotronik, a German cardiac device manufacturer, and its sales representative Edward Tague were accused of paying and incentivizing Klonis through a scheme designed to boost device sales. MountainView's own contract with Klonis, the complaint alleged, rewarded him for performing more invasive cardiovascular procedures. Court documents showed that in 2007, MountainView implanted more permanent pacemakers than any other hospital in New Mexico, and Klonis accounted for a disproportionate share of that volume. Between 2006 and 2009, over $10 million in procedure billings flowed from Klonis's patients at that facility.

Randi McGinn and Kathy Love of McGinn, Montoya, Love and Curry tried the case before a 3rd Judicial District Court jury in Las Cruces. The trial ran three weeks, the longest in the presiding judge's 11-year tenure. The plaintiffs argued that Biotronik and Tague were the commercial engine of the scheme, that financial incentives drove the medical decisions, and that the Sowards and roughly 34 other patients paid the price with unnecessary surgery.

In September 2014 the jury found Biotronik and Tague jointly liable and returned a verdict of $67.3 million: $2.3 million in compensatory and consortium damages and $65 million in punitive damages. The punitive award reflected the jury's finding that the defendants acted with reckless indifference to patient safety. Post-trial, the trial judge reduced the punitive damages award to $25 million, bringing the total judgment to approximately $27.3 million. At the time of trial, 33 additional plaintiffs had filed similar claims against Biotronik in Santa Fe.