Hip Implant Lawsuit
The defective medical product attorneys at the Law Offices of Gregory Krasovsky provide legal support and representation to any plaintiff seeking to pursue a legitimate Hip Implant lawsuit. In order to successfully take on large medical device companies, it is necessary to have a competent Hip Implant attorney to help you navigate the legal hurdles. Contact a Hip Implant lawyer to schedule a free consultation and learn how we can help you secure a just Knee Replacement settlement.
Metal-on-Metal hip implants or hip replacements are becoming a growing problem for patients. In short, many of the models of metal-on-metal hip replacements on the market now have a high probability of being defective. A number of the makers of these medical devices have already faced legal action for defective and shoddily made products. Furthermore, this problem is only exacerbated by the fact that hundreds of thousands of hip replacement surgeries are conducted each year. Doctors perform approximately 250,000 hip replacement surgeries each year. Of these many surgeries, a relatively high proportion of them involve defective products.
The New York Times has reported that there have been as no fewer than 5,000 reports of adverse effects in the first half of 2011 alone. There were more reports of defective hip implants in 2011 than there were in the previous four years. Additionally, most of these reports of defective hip implants have been linked to the Zimmer Durom Cup and the DePuy ASR.
Ideally, a hip implant should last approximately fifteen years; however, the current defective models have been known to last for as little as two years. After this time, the parts started to disintegrate in the body and infect the blood stream. Additionally, the disintegration causes serious pain.
The DePuy ASR is defective because the metal parts in the joint area rub against each other and release tiny particles of metal into the blood stream and other parts of the body. The main problem with the Zimmer Durom Cup is that it came with insufficient instructions and caused mistakes in its implementation. Additionally, the Zimmer Durom Cup fails to properly bind itself to the bone, and, as a result, the hip implant has to be replaced.
If a patient has a defective hip implant, he or she will require revision surgery, which is a costly and painful process to remove the prosthetic hip from the body and replace it with one that functions correctly. No patient honestly wants to undergo such a procedure again, and the revision surgery is one of the reasons why plaintiffs might be entitled to a sizable recovery of damages.
Some patients catch the problems with the hip implants early because they undergo serious pain when the defective device starts to fail; however, other patients do not experience any pain until it might be too late.
The DePuy ASR hip implant has been recalled on July 17, 2010, but it has already been implanted in thousands of patients. If all the implants are equally defective, then all those patients who had DePuy hip implants might be entitled to hip replacement compensation.
Sometimes, the medical professionals who performed a hip implant might be held liable for failing to take proper care in the installation of the hip replacement. If such a thing happens then the patient might be able to sue for medical malpractice.
Other hip implant and hip replacement systems are being carefully looked at to see whether or not they are defective. For example, the Stryker Hip Replacement and the Smith & Nephew Hip Replacement system have had problems reported with them. In 2007, Smith & Nephew had already recalled a few hundred of its implants, which were mislabeled by the manufacturer.
The following kinds of hip replacement systems have been found to be, or are suspected of being, defective:
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DePuy Pinnacle Hip Implant
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Corin Hip Resurfacing
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Biomet Hip Replacement
If you have had a hip implant and are concerned about a possible defect, you should consult a medical professional immediately. If a defect has been found, it is crucial to contact a competent hip replacement attorney as soon as possible to secure just compensation for your grievous injury.