What happens when medical device companies ‘abandon’ patients with experimental brain implants?

Professor Frédéric Gilbert says a growing number of patients will be abandoned when clinical trials go bust.
Professor Frédéric Gilbert.

Back in 2010, Rita Leggett received a brain implant that changed her life.  

She had lived with severe chronic epilepsy for decades, but she received a neural device — known as a brain–computer interface (BCI) — as part of a clinical trial.

It detected oncoming seizures, sending an alert to a handheld device that gave Ms Leggett enough of a warning for her to administer prophylactic clonazepam.

Her seizures reduced from three a month to zero.