In a new DePuy ASR lawsuit, a Georgia couple says they were adversely affected by design flaws in the husband’s hip implant.

Plaintiffs Janice and Danny M. claim that Danny underwent a full arthroplasty in July 2007, receiving a DePuy ASR implant in his left hip.

Over the next few years, Danny developed hip implant complications serious enough to require having his DePuy ASR implant surgically removed. He underwent revision surgery in December 2016 to remove the failed implant, according to the DePuy ASR lawsuit.

Danny now alleges his hip implant complications were caused by an excess of chromium and cobalt metal particles, as revealed by blood testing taking while the implant was still in place.

This shedding of metal particles results from a defect in the ASR hip implant, he says – a defect he could not have known about until after the ASR implant was recalled from the market.

The couple accuses defendant DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., Johnson & Johnson Co., and several of their related companies of failing to adequately warn physicians and patients about the risks of complications associated with the DePuy ASR hip implant.

His DePuy ASR lawsuit raises over 20 separate claims. Janice, as Danny’s spouse, is bringing a claim for loss of consortium to seek compensation for the harm done to the couple’s marital relationship.

The couple’s DePuy ASR Lawsuit is Case No. 1:17-dp-20031, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

DePuy ASR Recall

Unlike older hip implant designs that use a non-metal liner, the DePuy ASR hip implant was designed to let the metal femoral head and acetabular cup work directly against each other.

These metal bearing surfaces are believed to shed particles of metal into the surrounding soft tissue and the bloodstream. This metal loose in the body can lead to metallosis, a toxic reaction that can result in the death of tissue near the implant.

The recall Janice and Danny mentioned was issued in 2010. Johnson & Johnson issued the DePuy ASR recall after receiving many after-market reports of failures and excessive complications necessitating revision surgery. According to one study, one out of eight DePuy ASR implants failed within five years of implantation.

By the time the recall was issued, the DePuy ASR hip implant had been used in over 90,000 hip replacement surgeries.

DePuy ASR Lawsuit Joins Many Others Like It in MDL

Janice and Danny are two of the newest plaintiffs to join the DePuy ASR multidistrict litigation, or MDL.

An MDL is a consolidation of several similar lawsuits in a single court. The federal court system sometimes combines similar claims this way to coordinate pretrial procedures. By handling similar cases together, an MDL can make procedures more efficient and reduce the occurrence of inconsistent judicial rulings.

The DePuy ASR MDL has been going on since December 2010. Thousands of cases have been processed through the MDL. Several rounds of mass settlements have resulted in billions of dollars in compensation for affected patients.

The DePuy ASR MDL is In re: DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. ASR Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2197, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.