How Metal-on-Metal Hip Replacements Failed Leading to Operations and Blood Poisoning

We have known for some time about the serious health effects some people with metal-on-metal replacement hips have suffered, but we are still contacted by people who are suffering.

The fiasco of artificial hips made by Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy orthopedic unit and Stryker, is a particularly upsetting one because people who received these products were suffering from hip failure in the first place. The fact the implants failed them added injury to injury and meant pain and further surgery.

Last year thousands of people whose artificial hips leaked metal into their bloodstreams learned they would receive at least $300,000 each after a $1.4 billion settlement announced in a Minneapolis federal courtroom.

Thousands of people across the country were the recipients of artificial hips sold by Stryker, only to find the pain they suffered was just as bad or worse than before their surgeries. In total, more than 5,000 people in 39 states filed product-defect cases against Stryker over its Rejuvenate and ABG II modular-neck implants.

Most of those cases will be resolved under a settlement announced in court by U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank. The damages in the cases are not capped, and the company’s estimate of $1.425 billion in total payouts is considered to be a low one.

In 2013, in a ruling with potential implications for hundreds of thousands of Americans, a jury in California ordered Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy orthopedic unit to pay more than $8 million in damages at the end of the first trial of nearly 11,000 lawsuits filed over the company’s defective artificial metal hips. The recipient of a device suffered kidney cancer.

While the Los Angeles Superior Court jury found that the hips were defective, it said DePuy did not act with fraud or malice.

In that case, DePuy was ordered to pay more than $338,000 in medical costs and $8 million for pain and suffering to plaintiff Loren Kransky. The jury did not award punitive damages.

As a Virginia Beach personal injury lawyer I have represented clients who have been hurt by these hip replacements. Although these giant companies appear to be footing large bills, Johnson & Johnson is a massive company that boasts annual revenue of about $70 billion. According to reports it has set aside $3 billion for these lawsuits.

DePuy recalled these metal on metal hips in 2010, as it became clear the devices were failing at higher-than-expected rates. Some 93,000 ASR hips were sold before to the recall.

See these questions and answers over product liability. If you have been harmed by a defective drug or medical device, call Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers at 757.455.0077.