A San Antonio man has filed a DePuy Pinnacle hip lawsuit against the makers of his hip replacement system, citing extreme pain and difficulty walking.

Plaintiff Sieghardt L., a resident of San Antonio, Texas, was implanted with the DePuy Pinnacle hip replacement system during a total left hip arthroplasty procedure on April 2, 2008.

He claims that soon after the procedure, he began to experience “ongoing pain, swelling and loss of strength in his left hip and leg.” This DePuy Pinnacle hip lawsuit alleges that Sieghardt has experienced continued swelling and difficulty walking. The plaintiff claims that at times, his hip will suddenly and unexpectedly “give out on him.”

Sieghardt’s doctor, according to this DePuy Pinnacle hip lawsuit, told him that he was not a candidate for revision surgery because of his extreme hypertension. As a result, the plaintiff is concerned about his health going forward and wonders if there are elevated metal ions in his blood because of the metal-on-metal structure of the DePuy Pinnacle hip device.

This DePuy Pinnacle hip lawsuit claims that the plaintiff was “unaware of any causal link between the injuries he has suffered and any wrongdoing on the part of the Defendants due to the faulty and defective nature of the Pinnacle Device and to the failure of Defendants to properly warn him and his physicians about the Pinnacle device’s defective and faulty nature.”

He blames DePuy for not warning him and for not issuing recalls for the device before they did. Allegedly, they knew about complications long before any device recalls were announced.

Sieghardt’s DePuy Pinnacle hip lawsuit asserts that “all of the injuries and complications suffered by the Plaintiff were caused by the defective design, warnings, construction and unreasonably dangerous character of the Pinnacle Device that was implanted in him.”

He believes that DePuy concealed the known defects and early failure rate of the Pinnacle device as well as the known complications and unreasonable risks. Sieghardt claims that he would have never agreed to have it implanted had he known about all the potential problems.

Metal-on-metal hip implants have been associated with a host of problems similar to ones experienced the plaintiff in this lawsuit. Patients report severe and debilitating side effects from metal-on-metal hip replacements like the DePuy Pinnacle hip system. There is a higher risk of cancer because of metal particles and toxic substances that leak into surrounding tissue and blood as a result of this type of implant.

When the metal pieces rub together when a patient moves his or her joint, metal particles can be shed and poison nearby tissue. Additionally, degenerative heart disease can occur as well as cardiomyopathy and non-cancerous tumors surrounding the hip implant site. These tumors can cause pain, swelling and inflammation.

The device may undergo premature failure, which necessitates revision surgery to maintain the joint.

This DePuy Pinnacle hip lawsuit brings forth claims of negligence, failure to warn, manufacturing defect, design defect, negligent misrepresentation, breach of express warranty and breach of implied warranty.

This DePuy Pinnacle hip lawsuit is Case No. 3:17-cv-02724-K in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division.