This surely should push eBay to be more strict with medical devices.
It was reported by Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune that Medtronic Inc., based in Minneapolis, recently discovered that one of its pacemakers was stolen from a California hospital, sold on eBay and then implanted in an Arizona man.
This surfaced when when police in Sacramento, Calif., arrested a 21-year-old woman early March on an embezzlement charge. Amber Bowen, a nurse's aide at Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento, also ran an Internet medical supply business on the side called Body Fantasy Inc., according to Sacramento police.
Bowen allegedly stole two Medtronic pacemakers from the hospital in October 2004 and then posted them for sale on eBay. Typically, a pacemaker costs about $6,000, but Bowen sold them for $255 each, police said.
The report said the stolen pacemakers were bought by Greg Etts, a purchasing manager for a large cardiac practice based in the Phoenix area called Advanced Cardiac Specialists, according to a report issued by the Arizona Medical Board. Etts reportedly had admitted to board officials that he knew the pacemakers were stolen when he bought them and that he often purchased devices on eBay.
