A new plaintiff in the multidistrict litigation against Wright alleges failure of both his Conserve hip implants.

Plaintiff Alberto F. of Los Angeles says in his metal hip implant lawsuit he received two Wright Conserve hip implants, the first in the left hip in January 2011 and the second in the right hip in May 2011.

Around the time of the second implant, he started experiencing hip implant complications. Alberto had the left implant surgically removed in June 2014 and the right implant removed in February.

Alberto now says his Conserve hip implant complications were proximately caused by wrongdoing on the part of defendants Wright Medical Technology, Inc. and Wright Medical Group, Inc.

His hip implant lawsuit is one of hundreds pending against Wright related to its Conserve hip implant system.

Wright Conserve Hip Implant Complications

The Wright Conserve hip implant system was designed to be used in younger, more active patients. However, its history on the market has been marred by reports of high rates of failure and need for revision.

The Conserve is one of several metal-on-metal hip implants that have led to complications by shedding toxic amounts of metal ions into the recipient’s bloodstream. The result for the patient can mean metallosis, pseudotumors, and destruction of surrounding tissue.

Other problematic implants besides Wright’s include the Pinnacle and ASR systems by DePuy Orthopaedics and the Rejuvenate and ABG II systems manufactured by Stryker Corp.

Wright Hip Implant MDL

Alberto’s hip implant lawsuit is part of a multidistrict litigation, or MDL, addressing complications of the Wright Conserve hip implant. This MDL is a consolidation of many individual claims into a single procedure in a single court. The federal court system uses the MDL procedure in cases where, as with large-scale products liability litigation, a large number of discrete lawsuits share many of the same issues.

The Wright hip implant MDL has been going on since February 2012. Other California state lawsuits against Wright have been consolidated in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

The first of those California cases to go to trial yielded a $4.5 million jury award in June 2015. The plaintiff in that case had a Profemur R hip implant that broke after three years of its expected ten-year service life. The jury found that the plaintiff’s Profemur R hip implant was defectively manufactured because it had been weakened by a laser during the manufacturing process. The jury did not find fault in the Profemur R’s design, however.

Of the total award, $500,000 went to the plaintiff’s wife for loss of consortium. Wright’s highest offer in settlement negotiations was $455,000.

Alberto’s hip implant lawsuit raises claims based on theories of negligence, defective manufacturing, defective design, failure to warn, breach of warranty, fraud, infliction of emotional distress, and violation of California consumer protection and trade practices laws.

He seeks compensation for pain and suffering, medical expenses, lost earnings and reduced earning capacity, and loss of enjoyment of life. He also seeks awards of punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.

The Wright Hip Implant MDL is In re: Wright Medical Technology, Inc., Conserve Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2329 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.