Several years ago, Jan Beadling received a defibrillator as a "safety net" in case her heart stopped. Everything seemed fine until New Year's Eve 2007. On what was supposed to be a celebratory night, Jan's husband, Walt, gave her a kiss on her cheek. Without warning, she jumped, having felt some sort of an electric shock course through her body. Something was not right, and doctors later confirmed that the defibrillator lead had fractured and needed to be replaced. Defibrillators are implanted heart devices that shock dangerous abnormal heart rhythms back to a normal rhythm.

Beadling received a new lead, but still lives with the defective one in place because removal could put her life at risk. Medtronic, the maker of the defective lead, had recalled them after more than 120 incidents of fractures and malfunctions. But unfortunately for Beadling, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008 ruled in Riegel v. Medtronic that manufacturers of class III medical devices such as her defibrillator, which have been approved through the Food and Drug Administration's premarket approval process, essentially are immune from liability.