The first of 1,200 hip implant lawsuits filed against Wright Medical Technology Inc. has started in Los Angeles.

A hip-replacement patient who received a Wright hip implant told jurors that laser etchings weakened his allegedly shoddy implant, causing it to break.

Plaintiff Alan W. claims that the hip implant was guaranteed to last between 15 and 20 years, but failed after less than three. The plaintiff’s attorney said that the injured plaintiff “didn’t do anything to make it break.”

According to the hip implant lawsuit, the component snapped, essentially resulting in the loss of his left hip joint and caused a great deal of pain for the plaintiff.

Alan filed the hip lawsuit in December 2011, alleging that his Wright hip implant failed as he walked to his kitchen for coffee. The implant’s failure threw the plaintiff into extreme agony. Alan was forced to undergo extensive surgery to have the implant fixed.

David Van Dyke of Howard & Howard Attorneys PLLC, the attorney for Wright Medical, told jurors in this first case that Warner’s hip implant failed due to incorrect installation. Van Dyke reported that this faulty installation allowed slight problematic movements that, after several years, caused the fracture. Van Dyke denied any responsibility on Wright Medical’s part for the plaintiff’s implant failure alleging that it was entirely caused by failure to install the implant correctly during surgery.

Metal-On-Metal Hip Implant Lawsuit Status

Over 600 hip implant lawsuits of coordinated litigation against Wright Medical hip implants are waiting in California state court. Alan’s case is the first of these hip implant lawsuits to go to trial. Another 600 cases in a federal multidistrict litigation based in Georgia are waiting to go before jurors.

While the specific types of hip implant failure vary, the 1,200 cases all focus on alleged metal-on-metal hip implant failure of Wright Medical’s Profemur hip system. The lawsuits allege Wright Medical’s failure to adequately warn of the potential risks of the hip implants prior to surgery as well as a claim its a defective and destructive product.

According to Helen Zukin of Kiesel Law LLP, liaison counsel for the California cases, Alan’s lawsuit is a bit different from the majority of the other hip implant lawsuits against Wright. Zukin said that Alan’s implant appeared to break in the implant’s stem. Most of the others allegedly either broke in the neck or corroded more slowly.

Corrosion allows tiny shards of the implants metal components to affect a patient’s tissues, bones, and/or bloodstream. Many of these lawsuits allege that the hip implants leeched the metals chromium and cobalt into the bloodstream and hip capsule.

The hip implant lawsuits argue that Wright Medical had a duty to inform the plaintiffs of potential risks prior to implant surgery.

If you or someone you know has experienced complications due to a metal-on-metal hip implant, you may have legal claim.