A North Carolina couple recently filed a hip implant lawsuit against Zimmer Biomet, alleging that their Durom Acetabular Component product was defective and caused significant injuries to the plaintiff.

Plaintiffs Raymond and Kathleen G. claim that the Durom Cup, was implanted in plaintiff Raymond’s right hip in 2008. The hip implant lawsuit alleges that the Durom Cup was later found to be defective and required surgical revision in late 2012.

These surgeries led to significant injuries towards the plaintiff, including pain and agony. As a result, plaintiff Raymond claims to have suffered from loss of enjoyment of life. According to the hip replacement lawsuit, because of this pain and continued suffering plaintiff Raymond is also no longer able to work.

The metal-on-metal hip implant lawsuit alleges that as a result of the defective implant, Raymond suffered from metal debris that killed soft tissue and bone around his hip. These complications decrease his chances for a future hip replacement to be successful.

According to the hip implant lawsuit, Zimmer had knowledge of the threat of serious injuries associated with the use of the Durom Cup product. Despite this knowledge, the company engaged in aggressive marketing tactics which omitted the product’s safety hazards and warnings involving its defective design.

The Durom Cup’s failure rate in patients is unacceptably high at 24 percent, according to the lawsuit, placing patients at completely unnecessary risk. The plaintiffs claim that hip replacement patients were falsely led to believe that the implant was fully safe.

Plaintiffs Raymond and Kathleen are suing the hip implant manufacturers on multiple counts including failure to warn, design defect, negligence, and intentional misrepresentation.

Zimmer Hip Implant Lawsuits

Zimmer is one of the main hip and knee replacement manufacturers in the U.S., founded in 1927. Zimmer’s contributions to the hip and knee replacement market made up about seventy percent of the market in 2008, when the market was valued at $6.7 billion.

The Durom Cup is used during total hip replacement surgeries, repairing joint or bone damage. The Durom Cup is designed to bond to a patient’s hip bone, and relies upon the bone to grow into the cup’s shell, holding it in place.

However, Zimmer hip implant lawsuits allege that the Durom Cup implant resists this necessary bone growth. As a result of this defect, the product can come loose and cause damage to the pelvic bone. Plaintiffs in these hip implant lawsuits allege that this causes extreme pain and often requires revision surgery.

The Durom Cup is part of a metal-on-metal hip implant system and concerns about such systems have been on the rise for the past several years.

An article published in The New York Times in 2010 reported that these devices “can quickly began to wear, generating high volumes of metallic debris that is absorbed into a patient’s body. This situation can touch off inflammatory reactions that cause pain in the groin, death of tissue in the hip joint and loss of surrounding bone.”

Zimmer’s Durom Cup has been implanted in over 12,000 patients, which means thousands of people may be at risk. An increasing number of injured patients are beginning to file hip implant lawsuits against Zimmer hoping to gain some kind of compensation for the physical, mental, and emotional suffering felt as a result of the failed hip implants.

If you or someone you know has experienced complications due to a metal-on-metal hip implant you may be able to file a hip implant lawsuit.

The Zimmer Hip Implant Lawsuit is Case No. 2:15-cv-06563-SDW-SCM, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.