DePuy Hip Implant Recall Lawsuit Lawyer

A Dallas jury awarded six plaintiffs a total of $247 for harm they suffered from Pinnacle artificial hips made by the DePuy division of Johnson & Johnson (J&J). The jury decided that J&J did not give proper warnings to doctors and patients that the hip implant devices were defective. $79 million of the verdict was for actual damages, and $168 million was for punitive damages. The six plaintiffs had to have their artificial hip devices surgically removed.

The plaintiffs’ lawyer characterized DePuy and J&J’s actions as “reprehensible.” J&J insists that it was appropriate and responsible in its actions when marketing and developing the hip implants. The DePuy and J&J defense lawyers announced that they would immediately appeal the verdict.

The plaintiffs accuse the defendants of putting the Pinnacle hip implants on the market before conducting sufficient testing, and of deceiving doctors about the safety of the device. Plaintiffs say J&J and DePuy knew or should have known about the risk of metal poisoning and damage to surrounding tissue. After problems surfaced with the metal-on-metal device, DePuy tricked doctors into continuing to use the hip implant devices by telling them the company had fixed the defects, according to the plaintiffs.

DePuy denies there are any defects in the design of the implants, and blames the failed hip devices on normal wear and tear. J&J admits that 12 percent of its devices failed within five years. DePuy suggests that its advertising and marketing materials are irrelevant because none of the doctors relied on that information. The jury, however, found the marketing to constitute “deceptive business practices.”

This verdict is not the first against J&J and DePuy for the Pinnacle hip replacement devices. In a 2016 case, a jury awarded $502 million to five patients. The court cut that verdict to around $150 million on appeal. A jury awarded over $1 billion to six Californians in 2017. The appellate court reduced that amount to about $500 million.

If you or a loved one has experienced problems after a hip implant, get medical attention and then get help from a lawyer. Talk to the products liability attorneys at Gacovino, Lake & Associates, PC at 800-550-0000 today.

DePuy Orthopedics (DePuy), a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson (J&J), will be shelling out $247 million to six New York patients who suffered bone erosion, tissue death and other complications from the DePuy Pinnacle hip replacement in a bellwether lawsuit. Although J&J claims to have clinical data that shows the Pinnacle devices are effective, the corporation finds itself defending over 9,700 lawsuits across the country.

The jury found DePuy responsible because the Pinnacle hip system has design defects and that DePuy and J&J failed to warn patients of the risks the defective design posed. The $247 million verdict was the third Pinnacle case in a row DePuy and J&J lost.

In March 2016, a Texas jury awarded five plaintiffs half a billion dollars for their injuries from the Pinnacle device. The appellate court reduced the award to $150 million. In March 2017, a California jury reached a verdict of $1 billion for six plaintiffs in a Pinnacle case. The appeals court cut this award to $543 million.

DePuy no longer sells the Pinnacle products, which are metal-on-metal devices. It did not stop selling them until 2013 after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) changing its regulations that govern artificial hip products.

Because there are so many lawsuits pending against DePuy and J&J for the Pinnacle device, the courts selected test cases (called bellwether cases) to take to trial. The courts will use the outcomes of these cases evaluate the remaining thousands of cases with a mind to settling those cases.

If you or a loved one has experienced side effects after a hip replacement, get medical attention and then get help from a lawyer. Talk to the products liability attorneys at Gacovino, Lake & Associates, PC at 800-550-0000 today.

In an analysis recently published in The British Editorial Society of Bone & Joint Surgery, UK researchers studied the rates of revision for metal-on-metal (MoM) total hip replacement surgeries. Specifically, they compared the long-term performance of MoM hip replacement surgeries that used the 36-mm Pinnacle hip.

Using case study data from the National Joint Registry for England and Wales, researchers focused on hip replacement surgeries performed between 2003 and 2012, in which patients had follow-ups within the last five years.

The study revealed that five-year revision rates were significantly higher for all MoM hip replacement surgeries performed from 2007 onwards. This includes the Pinnacle hip replacement group and the control group. In other words, researchers found no major difference in revision rates for surgeries using Pinnacle components and surgeries using other hip MoM designs.

Researchers speculate the increased rate of revision surgery “may be explained by increased surveillance and recent lowering of the threshold for revision.” These findings echoed those of a 2016 cohort study published in BMJ Open, in which researchers concluded that the Pinnacle MoM hip prostheses had “an unacceptably high revision rate.”

Revision joint replacements are usually more complicated than initial hip replacement surgeries. Often, undergoing this type of procedure means more downtime and expense for patients.

If you or a loved one has experienced complications with a hip replacement, call the defective medical device attorneys at Gacovino, Lake & Associates, P.C., at 800-550-0000. We offer free consultations to clients who have undergone revision surgeries to correct defective hip implants.