Megavac was developed by American radiologist Dr. Richard Fulton in 2013 and is not a recent invention by Indian doctors
A video circulating on social media (here, here, and here) claims that the Megavac mechanical thrombectomy system, developed by a group of Indian doctors, simplifies heart surgeries by effectively removing blockages from heart arteries. The post also claims that this advanced equipment makes procedures less complicated and inexpensive with a price tag of only Rs. 5,000 (USD 75). Let’s verify the claim through this article.
Claim: Indian doctors developed Megavac, a new mechanical thrombectomy system for Heart Surgeries.
Fact: The Megavac Mechanical Thrombectomy System was not invented by Indian doctors. It was developed by Dr. Richard Fulton in 2013. A radiologist and founder of Vascular Development Corporation, Dr. Fulton holds over 60 patents and was the chief of radiology at St. Mary’s Hospital in Colorado for 30 years. The first successful use of the Megavac to remove an arterial clot occurred in 2016. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
A Google search revealed (here) that Dr. Richard Fulton invented the Megavac Mechanical Thrombectomy System in 2013. An inventor with over 60 medical device patents, Dr. Fulton’s creations, including Megavac, have significantly advanced medical procedures, such as removing blood clots from arteries.
We found that Dr. Richard Fulton, founder of Vascular Development Corporation, is a radiologist and inventor with over 60 patents. He was chief of radiology at St. Mary’s Hospital in Colorado for 30 years.
Further investigation led us to an interview from April 2018 where Dr Fulton states that the first case in which Megavac was used successfully to remove arterial clots was in 2016. “I was just like, ‘Wow! The darn thing worked! Saved a lady’s life!’ It was overwhelming.” he told the interviewer.
The same article mentions a video on how the MegaVac works, available at capturevascular.com. Following this, our search led us to a similar video on the Capture Vascular YouTube channel, uploaded on 19 May 2017, demonstrating the MegaVac system in action.
Additionally, we searched for the inventor of the Megavac Mechanical Thrombectomy System on the Global Unique Device Identification Database (GUDID) and found that it was invented by CAPTURE VASCULAR, INC.
To sum up, Megavac was developed by American radiologist Dr. Richard Fulton in 2013 and is not a recent invention by Indian doctors.