You do realize the 21 yr old was non-compliant with his doctors orders? Mountain biking at high altitudes was against his doctors orders but the outcome is tragic non-the-less and it revealed a legitimate problem...not defending them. If it were an 85 yr old non-compliant pt, J&J would have bought Guidant and we wouldn't be having this discussion.
So lets stop arguing. The fact is, the bar has been set and unless a youthful patient doesn't meet the same tragic demise as the Guidant pt, it isn't media worthy and STJ won't be punished. However, doc's and pt's are a lot smarter following the Guidant issues and both are punishing STJ daily in terms of lost ICD business. I can't wait to see their next quarterly ICD #'s.