Wright's Hip Implant Patient Receives $4.5 Million For Settlement

A California jury has ordered Wright Medical Technology Inc. to pay $4.5 million to Alan Warner, a metal hip implant patient, and his wife after finding that his implant was defective and caused him harm. This was the first trial among 1,200 cases claiming Wright’s hip implants are defective. The jury agreed with the patient’s allegation that the hip implant he received contained a manufacturing defect, and that the implant’s failure injured both him and his wife. Interestingly, the jurors didn’t find that Wright was negligent in designing the Profemur R implant.
The jury didn’t award Mr. Warner any damages for his medical expenses. But they did award him $4 million for his past and future pain and mental suffering. His wife was awarded $500,000 for the losses she’s suffered as the result of his defective hip implant.
The suit was filed in December 2011, alleging that on Oct. 27, 2010, Mr. Warner’s implant failed while he went to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, throwing him into extreme agony and forcing him to undergo extensive surgery to fix it. Laser guidance marks etched too deeply on the implant allegedly weakened the implant and caused it to fail, according to Mr. Warner. His case is a bit different than most of the others, in that the implant appeared to break in the stem of the implant. Most others appear to have broken in the neck or leeched chromium and cobalt into the bloodstream and hip capsule.
Steven R. Vartazarian, a lawyer for Mr. Warner, told jurors during the trial that the hip implant was supposed to last 15 to 20 years, but that this one failed after less than three years. This case is the first of more than 600 lawsuits in coordinated litigation in California state court and about 600 more in federal multidistrict litigation based in Georgia to go before jurors. All of the cases focus on the alleged metal-on-metal failure of Wright’s Profemur hip implants, though the specific types of failure vary. Wright took the position during the trial that the device failed because it was not installed correctly. It was contended by Wright that this allowed slight movements that eventually caused the fracture.

Stryker Hip Settlement Over $1 Billion

Stryker has agreed to pay over $1 billion to the thousands of plaintiffs involved in Stryker hip recall lawsuits. These metal on metal hip implant lawsuits were filed after Stryker’s metal-on-metal hip implants failed in thousands of patients which led to the Stryker recall. Stryker, and other makers of metal-on-metal hip implants, have faced countless hip replacement lawsuits concerning serious hip replacement complications.

Nearly 4,500 Stryker hip recall lawsuits have been filed concerning the Stryker Rejuvenate Hip Stem and ABG II devices. They have been consolidated into two Stryker recall MDLs, one in a Minnesota federal court with 2,271 Stryker metal hip lawsuits and the other in the Bergen County Superior Court in New Jersey, with 2,160 hip replacement lawsuits. 

 

The Stryker hip recall was issued in 2012 after the metal-on-metal hip implants were failing in patients across the country. The Stryker metal-on-metal hip implants caused many patients to experience hip replacement complications such as failed implants, swelling, metal poisoning (caused by metal particles being released into the blood stream), and others. Many have had to undergo hip revision surgery in order to manage the metal hip implant side effects caused by the Stryker hip.

 

After many Stryker hip recall lawsuits had been filed, a settlement program was announced in November 2014 that stated each victim could receive $300,000 for hip replacement complications. This number was subject to increase or decrease depending on the individual, including any complications or additional needs for hip revision surgery. Plaintiffs who required multiple surgeries because of hip replacement complications will most likely receive a larger award.

Johnson &Johnson Ordered To Pay Oregon $4 Million To Settle Hip Implant Marketing Claims

 

DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, has agreed to pay $4 million to the state of Oregon to settle a lawsuit filed by the state. It was alleged that DePuy failed to disclose to physicians and patients that its hip implants had a high rate of failure. According to the Oregon Department of Justice, this is the first settlement of its kind. DePuy has previously settled thousands of suits over the ASR XL implant, which was recalled in 2010. DePuy still faces thousands of lawsuits in both federal and state courts.

Symptoms & Causes

ASR patients who required revision surgery have reported a variety of symptoms before having the revision surgery, including pain, swelling and problems walking. These symptoms are not unusual immediately after hip replacement surgery. If the symptoms continue or come back, you should consult with your surgeon.

Possible Causes

Symptoms such as pain, swelling or problems walking might be caused by:
   • Loosening
     The implant does not stay attached to the bone in the correct position.
   • Fracture
     The bone around the implant may have broken.
   • Dislocation
     The two parts of the implant that move against each other are no longer aligned.