This is Michael Brady Lynch, lead trial attorney for the Michael Brady Lynch Firm.
For years, thousands of people have filed lawsuits against manufacturer DePuy Orthopedics and parent company, Johnson & Johnson stating serious injury inflicted from the major design flaws of their metal-on-metal hip replacement systems. Finally, justice has been awarded. DePuy will pay five plaintiffs a total of $502 million in damages.
Defective Hip Implant Settlement
A jury awarded the five plaintiffs of the case (Margaret Aoki, Jay Christopher, Donald Greer, Richard Klusmann and Robert Peterson) $142 million in actual damages along with $360 million in punitive damages. They claimed that DePuy failed to adequately warn about the defectiveness of the hip implants. The implants were also largely untested due to a 510k clearance DePuy was granted. This clearance cleared the product without any clinical trials.
Clinical trials would have helped save thousands from injuries. This lawsuit and the many others filed revolve around DePuy’s Pinnacle metal-on-metal implants, which have led to serious health ramifications. Many experienced inflamed tissue surrounding a failed implant, reduction of mobility from implant failure, and countless revision surgeries. Hip implants are supposed to last 15 years; however, 40% of these Pinnacle or ASR implants failed within 5 years. This is eight times higher than the failure rate of other devices.
This settlement can only mean great news is on the horizon for our clients since there is a reported $4 billion put aside to settle additional claims. Publicly, DePuy has claimed that their implants are safe and effective. Now, everyone knows this is false. Our clients will soon feel vindicated and will finally get desperately needed compensation to balance the countless unpaid hours taken off from work for recovery, the respite from the mounting hospital debt, and payment for their pain and suffering.
We Help DePuy Victims
It is important to note that each hip device lawsuit is different. To get advice from a qualified hip device attorney, contact the dedicated attorneys at The Michael Brady Lynch Firm at 877-513-9517.