A DePuy Pinnacle hip lawsuit has been filed by a woman who claims the failed implant’s defects were known before the system was even marketed.

In May 2007, Bobbie D. had surgery to implant the DePuy Pinnacle hip system in her right hip. In August 2007, she had her left hip done.

Her hip implants, however, “are defective and have caused damage to her hip joints and her body,” says the DePuy Pinnacle hip lawsuit.

Bobbie “believes that the Pinnacle hip suffers from a similar design or manufacturing defect that forced DePuy to recall over 93,000 metal-on-metal ASR and ASR XL hip implants.”

The alleged design defect is in the fact that metal parts are forced to rub against each other with the full weight and pressure of the human body. Excessive amounts of cobalt and chromium wear away from the surface of the metal liner or the metal femoral head. As the metal fragments enter surrounding tissue, the body reacts by rejecting the hip implant.

“This rejection often manifests with symptoms of pain, looseness, dislocation, and squeaking and popping sounds. Inside the hip joint, the metal reaction often causes fluids to accumulate and soft tissues and bone to die,” says Bobbie’s complaint.

DePuy Pinnacle Hip Lawsuit Says Hundreds of Implants Failed

Shortly after patients began having surgeries to implant the Pinnacle hip system, DePuy began receiving complaints.

As far back as May 2002, DePuy knew at least two patients had to undergo revision surgery because the liner had disassociated with the cup. By the time Bobbie had her Pinnacle hip systems implanted, DePuy had received hundreds of complaints about the product.

“Despite its knowledge that the Pinnacle hip had a defect and that it had failed hundreds of times, causing hundreds of patients to undergo the agony of another surgery, DePuy continued to sell the defective hip implant,” says the DePuy Pinnacle hip lawsuit.

DePuy’s insistence that the Pinnacle hip system was safe and effective was a claim motivated by the fact that in 2009, DePuy generated $5.4 billion in sales for parent company Johnson & Johnson. DePuy had already had to face a critical defect in one of its earlier hip systems in 2008.

“The last thing DePuy wanted to do was to admit that these popular products had a critical defect that could cause a premature failure, forcing patients to have to undergo another painful surgery,” claims the DePuy Pinnacle hip lawsuit. “Focused on corporate profits, at the expense of patient safety, DePuy decided that it would not issue an embarrassing recall when it learned of the defects with its Pinnacle hip.”

Bobbie’s claim states that DePuy inadequately tested the Pinnacle design by using the FDA’s fast track approval process that allowed the Pinnacle system to slide through approvals based on proof its design closely mirrored that of a previously approved system.

Despite knowing of the dangerous and defective nature of the Pinnacle hip system, DePuy “continued to manufacture, sell, distribute, promote and supply the DePuy Pinnacle hip so as to maximize sales and profits at the expense of the public health and safety.”

The DePuy Pinnacle Hip Lawsuit is Case No. 3:17-cv-02162-K in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division.