A new metal-on-metal hip implant lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Western Division. The legal action was registered by plaintiff James R. on Aug. 24, 2018.

He has named DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. and Johnson & Johnson along with related companies as defendants.

DePuy is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson and manufactures the DePuy ASR metal-on-metal hip implant.

According to James’ short form metal-on-metal hip implant complaint which was filed under multidistrict litigation (MDL) No. 2197—DePuy ASR Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation—he had a DePuy ASR metal-on-metal hip implant surgically placed in the left side of his pelvic cage in February 2010.

The procedure was done at York Hospital in York, Pennsylvania by orthopedic surgeon Dr. Gracia Etienne.

James is a resident of Pennsylvania. Explantation of said DePuy ASR metal-on-metal hip implant occurred slightly less than seven years later in late January 2017. This was done at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center (UPMC) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by Dr. Michael O’Malley.

James’ short-form complaint indicates that he was injured by excessive levels of cobalt and chromium which leached into his blood from the metal-on-metal hip implant.

According to report, this leaching into the bloodstream often occurs after metal debris from the prosthetic deposits into the surrounding tissues.

The metal shards can bring about tissue death in the area and pseudotumors that can interfere with ambulation to a debilitating degree. If metal blood poisoning is allowed to continue without intervention, it can instigate certain types of cancer and potentially contribute to degenerative heart disease or cardiomyopathy. The blood poisoning is referred to as metallosis.

The 45-year-old plaintiff argues in his complaint that he didn’t have any indication that the problems and injuries he experienced after being implanted with the DePuy ASR hip prosthetic were common. It wasn’t until the company issued the product recall and news of it reached him that he made the connection.

The DePuy ASR hip implant was recalled in late August 2010 in a voluntary action by DePuy Orthopaedics. It followed a statistical analysis by the United Kingdom (UK) Joint Registry that up to 13 percent of patients that had received this prosthetic experienced failure and had to have hip revision surgery to replace the metal-on-metal hip implant with an alternative. The recall affected a global count of 93,000 units.

Johnson & Johnson—parent company to DePuy—is under the legal gun with a combined count of nearly 8,000 pending lawsuits for the XL Acetabular Hip Implant System and a very similar metal-on-metal hip implant known as the DePuy Pinnacle Acetabular Cup System.

Six years ago, Johnson & Johnson made the move to settle the first three ASL lawsuits for approximately $200,000 each. Since that time, more patients that needed hip revisions have come forward seeking legal redress for the device’s failure. Now the manufacturer has offered a settlement for those who had to endure hip revision surgery after March 2015.

If you were implanted with a DePuy ASR metal-on-metal hip implant and had an adverse experience leading to the removal of the device, you may be entitled to compensation.

The application process is complicated and will require the guidance of an expert attorney. Fill out our form and we will provide you with a free initial consultation with no further obligation.

The Metal-on-Metal Hip Implant Lawsuit is Case No. 1:18-dp-20069-JJH, in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Western Division.