Hip Replacement Lawsuit Blog

Avoiding Heavy Metal Poisoning

2011-07-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

Increasing concern about heavy metals arose partly due to DePuy hip replacement devices, notably the metal-on-metal hip acetebular prostheses, which was said to cause heavy metal toxicity. Unfortunately, we encounter heavy metals unknowingly everyday. The heavy metals which can be found at home, school and our environment that can cause heavy metal poisoning are mercury, lead, aluminum, antimony, arsenic, bismuth, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, silver, zinc. Some heavy metals are even utilized by our bodies to maintain the balance needed to keep our physique well-functioning and healthy. Such "essential" heavy metals are zinc, copper, chromium, iron and manganese but note that we only need minimum amount of these. However, heavy metal toxicity results if there is an abnormal accumulation of any of the above mentioned heavy metals. Thus, it is necessary to know the ways to avoid heavy metal poisoning.

Occupational hazard is the most common cause of heavy metal poisoning and there are ways we can use to prevent complications from too much contact with these heavy metals during work. Several precautionary methods employed by workers in the industry and factories are protective clothing such as protective masks, specially-made suits, thick and impenetrable gloves, boots, and thick-glass goggles. Respirators, emergency equipment, and medications or substances used to normalize the abnormal levels of the harmful heavy metals like those in chelation therapy should be ready at hand in case someone is observed to have the signs and symptoms of metallosis.

Brain fogging; persistent pain of one or more of the following body parts: the muscles, soft tissues, tendons, and/or joints; problems associated with the gastrointestinal system such as diarrhea, constipation, flatulence and nausea; unusual changes in the mood and affect; recurrent infections; headaches; dizziness; and problems in the nervous system are some of the drastic side effects of heavy metal toxicity. The heavy metals found to be the prevalent cause of heavy metal toxicity are mercury, lead, aluminum, antimony, arsenic, bismuth, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, silver, zinc and tin. When there is heavy metal poisoning, detoxifying emergency interventions must be immediately implemented since this could lead to grave conditions which could ultimately lead to death if left untreated. Bring the patient to the emergency unit of the nearest hospital in order to apprehend complications from toxic levels of heavy metals. For initial heavy metal poisoning managements, you can the consult poison control lines.

In cases where complications from hip replacement surgery using faulty DePuy ASR hip products were experienced, there was an issuance of a hip replacement recall. If you are interested to learn more about the updates about this case, you can visit related sites available.

DePuy Warned of Faulty Hip Replacements but Took No Action

2011-03-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

The common claim in the majority of the DePuy lawsuits stemming from the recent DePuy hip replacement recall is that the company was negligent in both the designing and testing of its products. This contributed to the injuries among the recipients of these defective devices. Recipients are also claiming that DePuy knew its hip replacements were defective, but failed to warn the public in an appropriate amount of time. If the company had acted promptly, it could have prevented injuries in thousands of people. It is this claim that has a very strong chance of winning in a court of law.

In 2003, the ASR XL Acetabular System and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System first entered the market. DePuy and its parent company, Johnson & Johnson, was first aware of the growing number of complaints regarding these devices beginning in 2005 from both recipients and surgeons describing pain, swelling, eroded and broken bones, failed implants, and metallosis. The company did not take any action.

The defective implants were detected immediately by Australia and the United Kingdom due to their regulatory artificial joint registries. The National Joint Replacement Registry in Australia reported higher than normal failure rates of the DePuy hip replacements as early as 2007. DePuy then voluntarily withdrew its products from their market by 2009. Similarly, the National Joint Registry of England and Wales was also effective in the early discovery of defective hip replacements. At the same time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration received several hundred complaints about the metal-on-metal device, but without a national registry to regulate these defective implants, no action was taken. With increasing pressure from the public and the FDA, DePuy finally initiated a recall in August of 2010.

The most recent studies have claimed that the failure rates in these defective devices are worse than originally indicated. Two major orthopedic organizations in the United Kingdom are now stating that out of the 93,000 patients that have received DePuy hip replacements, half of these implants will fail after only 6 years.

DePuy was aware of its defective implants, but continued to market and distribute them regardless. Patients that have received defective hip replacements and want proper compensation for their injuries should contact an experienced attorney. For more information regarding ongoing litigation, visit the DePuy hip recall website for details.

Different DePuy Recall Is Predicted To Occur

2011-01-25T08:49:00.000-08:00

Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, DePuy Orthopaedics manufactured the ASR XL Acetabular System and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System-- both of which are hip replacement devices that was recently recalled in August 2010. Twelve to thirteen percent of the 93,000 recipients are approximated to have been affected by the recall. This means that about 11,000 patients need to undergo a risky and expensive second hip replacement procedure or what is called a revision surgery. Some symptoms associated with the defective devices are pain, swelling, dislocation, difficulty walking and even the more severe metallosis. Orthopedists even report that nerve damage is one of the complications recipients undergo. Presently, hundreds of DePuy lawsuits have already been filed and experts believe this number could reach thousands.

DePuy's problems seem to only get much worse. It was found out that another line of hip replacement device, called the Pinnacle Solution (also known as the Pinnacle Acetabular Cup System), has similar issues with the ASR devices. There were at least 500 Pinnacle-related complaints that were noted by the United States Food and Drugs Administration. These complaints report of basically the same complications as the ASRs inflict among recipients. As of present time, individuals who have received this type of hip replacement already filed for DePuy Pinnacle lawsuits.

It has not yet been revealed just how many Pinnacle devices were implanted and how many are affected by its flaws. Another recall may be in the works given the company's oversight in manufacturing secure and durable orthopedic devices. One of the responsibilities of companies such as DePuy is that they offer the public a product that is safe for public use. To compensate for losses DePuy recipients are made to go through, filing a hip recall lawsuit is highly recommended.

To learn more on the ongoing DePuy litigation and get some updates, you can visit the hip replacement recall information center.

DePuy Hip Replacement Lawsuit Reach Canadian Courts

2010-11-29T10:32:00.000-08:00

In August, DePuy Orthopaedics have voluntarily recalled their hip devices, ASR XL Acetabular System and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System, from the global market after evidence of their high failure rate was revealed. A design flaw caused health complications in patients who has had the devices implanted in them. The recall means that further testing is required for all recipients and one out of eight patients would require an expensive revision surgery.

The hip implants were sold to countries such as Australia (where the ASRs were withdrawn domestically almost a year before the worldwide recall), England, Ireland and Canada. Hip replacement recipients from Australia as well as the United States have already started to file DePuy hip lawsuits against the manufacturer.

A lawyer from Canada sought the Quebec Superior Court to gain permission to file a national class-action lawsuit against DePuy Orthopaedics. It is yet to be known just how many recipients are affected by the recall in Canada.

If you have been implanted with a DePuy ASR hip replacement device, you should immediately consult with your surgeon to discuss your health status and to undergo testing and evaluation. Filing a DePuy hip lawsuit might be necessary to regain the losses you have experienced as a consequence to having their devices implanted in you.

Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Lawyer+targets+maker+defective+prosthetic+hips+proposed+class+action+lawsuit/3892749/story.html

DePuy Orthopedic Settles Kickback Charges

2010-10-19T08:35:00.001-07:00

More than three years of legal squabbling have finally reached an end as federal prosecutors settled with five orthopedic device companies after thorough investigation to allegations that the said companies paid bribes to surgeons to favor their products.

In March 2005, five orthopedic companies – Zimmer, Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy Orthopedics, Smith & Nephew, Stryker Corp. and Biomet Inc. – received subpoenas from the US Department of Justice through the US attorney’s office in Newark, NJ. The subpoenas aimed to seek further information pertaining to consulting contracts, professional service agreements and other agreements. The five companies reached to a $310 million agreement to resolve charges proposing they paid kickbacks to doctors.

These five orthopedic device giants account for almost 95 percent of the market when it comes to hip and knee implants. Four of them agreed to pay a total of $310 million, while all agreed to be closely monitored. The amounts were practically based on each company’s market share. According to the in-depth investigations, there is substantial evidence suggesting that health care decisions were being made based on the doctor’s wallet and not on the patient’s welfare.

US Attorney Christopher Christie says the companies bribed orthopedic surgeons huge sums of money to serve as consultants and to exclusively use their products, but their patients and the hospitals of the doctors were blind of the relationships. While Christie did not say if any doctors would be charged as the investigations progress, he did clarify that no company employees were being charged at the moment.

Biomet obliged to pay $26.9 million; Smith & Nephew, $28.9 million; and DePuy, $84.7 million. Stryker Corp. on the other hand will not be paying fines as a part of its agreement. It voluntarily cooperated with persecutors and agreed to engage in a non-prosecution pact; while Zimmer will pay $169.5 million and will be monitored by former US Attorney General John Ashcroft. The United States Department of Justice began probing the industry in 2005 due to concerns that companies may have paid bribes to the orthopedic surgeons in return of using and endorsing their products.

According to US Attorney Christopher Christie, the industry has been routinely violating the anti-kickback law by paying physicians for the sheer purpose of exclusive product use. Before the investigation, several orthopedic surgeons in the country have made medical decisions based on how much money they can make or in simpler terms, choosing the device of the “highest bidder” to implant. The US Department of Justice hopes that with these agreements in place, doctors will now make decisions based on what is best for their patients, and not what is best for their bank accounts.

The Dangers of Giving Information Online: DePuy Hip Replacement Patients

2010-10-15T06:12:00.000-07:00

When DePuy announced a product recall for their metal hip replacement implants last August, the entire American population was alarmed. Unlike any other pharmaceutical company requesting a recall for a certain type of drug, a recall for hip implants received by more than ninety thousand people cannot be remedied by simply throwing a bottle of pills to the trash.

The recall was due to the “metal on metal” hip implants’ high failure rate. DePuy’s ASR Hip Resurfacing System fails in about 12% of the recipients and the ASR XL Acetabular System fails in about 13% of patients. The worse part is, DePuy reported to have sold about 93,000 implants in the past year, which means that today, more than 11,000 people are likely to experience problems from the DePuy hip replacement devices.

If you went through a hip replacement surgery in the last two years and found out that you received a hip replacement implant from DePuy, the logical thing to do is to contact an attorney and file a case… but not so fast.

The recall of the defective hip implants has inspired hundreds new websites intended for people who might have been affected by the products and are thinking of filing a case against DePuy. These websites appear to be sponsored or affiliated with a law firm at first glance, and that any information that the patient gives will be passed on to a lawyer for a personal case review. However, these websites are not affiliated with any law firm, and were actually created and run by a marketing company.

These websites will ask for your name, phone numbers, home address and email address plus some information about your condition or complaint, promising to give you a “free case review”. But if you thoroughly read the fine print, these websites are going to use your personal information for marketing and promotional purposes.

When you submit your personal information and your contact information, you are actually agreeing to receive “future advertisements” from the website, which in simpler terms, mean spam. If the website says your case “will be reviewed by one or more attorneys and/or law firms”, there is a huge chance that the marketing company running the website will be selling your information to as many law firms as possible.

It is understandable to have the need to seek legal help, but be very careful in giving away personal information online. Look for a specific name of a lawyer or a law firm in the website, and read the Terms and Conditions of the website. Protect yourself from being scammed.

Learn more about litigation, process, settlements and all sorts of updates regarding the lawsuit, visit the DePuy Hip Replacement Lawsuit Website.