Medical devices designed to save lives come under the spotlight on tonight’s 60 Minutes, as Dimity Clancey investigates why thousands of Australians end up in hospital each year because of devices meant to help them.
The joint investigation with The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald examines whether Australia’s medical device approval system is adequately protecting patients, before Tara Brown catches up with Tasmania’s viral sensation, Neil the Seal.
HELP THAT HARMS
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There’s no question medical devices implanted or attached to the body, things like pacemakers, pain relief pumps or glucose monitors, are a significant advance in medicine. When they work as their manufacturers claim they should, they improve and save lives.
But as 60 MINUTES reveals in this joint investigation with The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, when the devices don’t work, the exact opposite is true. Remarkably, every year there are 150,000 incidents where Australians require hospital treatment because medical devices that are meant to help cause harm instead.
So why is that number so high?
As Dimity Clancey reports, it seems the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the health watchdog Australians rely on to keep them safe, is simply not up to the job of adequately testing the thousands of devices it approves for use here every year.
Reported by Dimity Clancey, and produced by Amelia Ballinger, Liam Mannix and Henrietta Cook.
THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT NEIL
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There are plenty of devils in Tasmania, but for the last six weeks a particularly cheeky one has both delighted and terrorised locals and tourists near Hobart. In throwing his not insignificant weight around, and doing exactly as he pleases, which is best summed up as wanton vandalism, Neil the Seal has become a worldwide celebrity.
As Tara Brown discovers though, this is not his first seal rodeo. For the past five years the 1000kg anti-authoritarian-hero has been making twice yearly visits to the Tasmanian east coast. That’s because, like all elephant seals, he is genetically programmed to return to his birth place from the sea.
A few days ago, Neil’s current visit came to an end, but like he’s done before, he certainly left a massive impression.
Reported by Tara Brown and produced by Laura Sparkes.
This episode of 60 Minutes airs tonight, Sunday 19th July, at 8:35pm on Channel 9 and 9Now.
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