DePuy To Face 4000 Lawsuits Over The Manufacture Of Defective Hip Implants

The severity of the present matters concerning DePuy Orthopaedics might have already sunk in for them. After all, they are not really what you call an unpopular company, because they are a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary. They have been even more well-known for inventing the ASR implants, namely the ASR XL Acetabular System and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System, that have been confirmed as defective by many research studies. This was after the Food and Drug Administration took control, after they have been bombarded with complaints from many angry patients. This left DePuy with no choice but to issue a recall on their hip implants, but this will certainly not stop the patients to press charges against them. In fact, an attorney estimates that DePuy might face at least 4, 000 hip recall lawsuits.

As what most reports have claimed, the ASR implants were made with metal-on-metal elements, in contrast to other hip implants invented by other manufacturers that have ceramic or metal-on-plastic components. Perhaps this ‘exceptional’ characteristic that DePuy made, apart from being a Johnson & Johnson company, was what caught the attention of the general public—something unique, from a trustworthy corporation. However, this so-called metal-on-metal patent was the main reason why the hip replacement surgery failed for most of the patients. The friction within the faulty hip devices apparently shed off quite a lot of metal debris, and these microscopic particles managed to circulate into the bloodstream, causing a state called metallosis. This is the condition where metal substances, such as cobalt and chromium, are present in the blood in extremely toxic values—dangerous enough to cause a myriad of complications, such as heart problems, closed fractures and permanent disability.

4,000 lawsuits might seems like a rather big number, enough to frighten DePuy; but think about the 93, 000 or more American recipients, and how the implants can affect one in every eight of them. More victims are probably out there, wondering if the act of filing a hip recall lawsuit is the right thing to do. Hip recall lawyers will most certainly say that suing the company might be the wisest act you can make, because your rights are defended, and you are entitled to claim the compensation.