St. Jude shipped old versions of heart device 17 months after key design change

In interviews this week, executives at St. Jude said they moved as quickly as possible with the information they had about the battery problem. They have studied the issue closely since it first was revealed in a journal article in December 2014, and they promptly informed doctors around the world once the official decision to recall the devices was made. But St. Jude acknowledges that it continued to ship its stock of old devices for 17 months after making a design improvement that reduced the potential for the device to lose power unexpectedly.