The first of some 10,000 hip replacement lawsuits pending against DePuy Orthopaedics and Johnson & Johnson is being tried in a Los Angeles court room. The 65 year old plaintiff, Loren Kransky, contends that the defendant hip manufacturers marketed their ASR total hip replacement system without adequately testing it and failed to warn doctors and the public of its dangers after learning that the hip implant had a design defect. As our Ohio DePuy hip replacement lawyers expected, evidence in the case is bearing out Kransky's allegations.
According to the N.Y. Times, a 2010 engineering report revealed that DePuy Orthopaedics did not use the proper standards in trying to assess the risks posed by the implant before beginning to sell it in 2003. The Times article characterizes the ASR implant as "among the most flawed orthopedic devices sold in recent decades."
Testifying by videotape, a DePuy compliance manager said that the engineering report showed that the company had not used appropriate engineering controls to anticipate problems with the implant.
A DePuy engineer further testified that the company tested the ASR implant on laboratory equipment at one angle of implant only. Yet, surgeons implant the hip at a variety of angles depending on the patient's anatomy and the surgical technique used. Because of the ASR's design flaw-a groove inside the cup component-implanting the device at different angles from the tested angle increases the likelihood that the cup and ball components would hit each other releasing metal particles that can cause tissue damage and metal poisoning.
Bloomberg News reported that a toxicologist testified that DePuy failed to consider the harmful effects of the chromium and cobalt debris released by the implant. Mr. Kransky had almost eight times the level of cobalt in his blood stream found acceptable by the California Poison Control System. Reuters reported further that the toxicologist offered the opinion that Kransky's implant failed because of this toxic exposure.
If you are experiencing complications with your DePuy hip implant, please contact an Ohio DePuy hip replacement attorney at Rourke and Blumenthal LLC, LLP. You can reach us at (614) 321-3212. One of our attorneys will return your call within 24 hours. You will never be screened out by a paralegal or secretary. For more information please visit our DePuy Hip replacement page.