The first of almost 11,000 lawsuits against a maker of artificial hips was settled March 8, awarding a patient $8.3 million.
Jurors found DePuy Orthopaedics, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, to be guilty of selling a prosthesis that is defective and causes metal poisoning. According to an article by ABC News, a former prison guard, 65-year-old Leon Kransky, who received a DePuy hip implant in 2007, suffered injuries from the defectively designed implant.
The jury found that the hip implant, called the ASR XL system, had two problems — a defective design and the fact that it caused metallosis, a form of metal poisoning.
The ASR XL system is a metal-on-metal (MOM) implant, meaning that the two primary parts of the implant that replace a person’s own hip joint are made of metal. A metal ball rotates within a metal socket, replicating the parts and the motion of a person’s normal hip. The metal-on-metal design was a newer form of hip implant, replacing other prosthetic materials that were usually ceramic or a hard plastic.
It was thought that the MOM implant would be more durable and that the metal parts would glide more easily against each other. However, it turned out that the friction of the parts rubbing together caused the implant to shed tiny particles of metal.
In Kransky’s case, the metal particles caused metal poisoning and other health problems, according to the news article.
The lawsuit is the first of nearly 11,000 lawsuits filed against DePuy for the now recalled device. The DePuy implants have a considerable history of troubles. While the ASR XL system was recalled in 2010, numerous other regulatory actions have been taken against the manufacturer. These include:
- About six month before the U.S. recalled the artificial hip, Australia took the implant off the market in December 2009.
- In the United Kingdom, the counterpart to our Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, issued a Medical Device alert warning about the implant causing local soft tissue reactions and the need for revision surgery. The agency sent out an initial alert in April 2010 and an update in February 2012.
- DePuy withdrew the ASR systems from the market in August 2010.
- The FDA announced on its website in February 2011 problems with MOM hip implants.
- In May 2011, the FDA ordered manufacturers to perform surveillance studies of metal-on-metal implants after they were sold.
- Health Canada issued a public health communication in May 2012 for orthopedic surgeons and patients, warning of problems with MOM hip implants.
Over 93,000 patients worldwide have received one of two DePuy’s artificial implants — the ASR XL Acetabular System total hip replacement and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System.
This is the first of many lawsuits to come. J&J has reserved about $1 billion to cover costs of the recall and lawsuits.
A DePuy spokeswoman, Loire Gawreluk said the company plans to appeal.
If you or someone you love is suffering from metal poisoning or other health problems associated with a faulty DePuy hip implant, you too may be eligible to file a claim. To learn more, contact the defective hip implant lawyers at Flood Law Group. Our attorneys are available to review potential claims on behalf of patients across the country.
*NOTE: Flood Law Group did not represent the plaintiff in the case. The source of this information is ABC News.