A couple has filed a lawsuit in Texas federal court against DePuy Orthopedics, Inc. and allege that the manufacturers marketed and sold a damaged product causing serious adverse side effects due to the medical hip implant insertion.

The couple, Plaintiffs Ronald D. and Debra D. are citizens and residents of Utah state.

The plaintiffs allege the following causes of action: 1) Negligence, 2) Strict Liability- Failure to Warn, 3) Strict Liability- Manufacturing Defect, 4) Strict Liability- Design Defect and 5) Negligent Misrepresentation.

According to the DePuy Pinnacle lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege that DePuy Orthopedics and its parent company Johnson & Johnson marketed and sold a faulty and defective metal-on-metal Pinnacle device to them and other consumers throughout the United States.

The plaintiffs maintain that Ronald had undergone a right total hip arthroplasty on Jan. 12, 2009, in Salt Lake City, Utah. In May 2009, Ronald underwent a second total hip arthroplasty in his left him at the same hospital, according to the DePuy Pinnacle lawsuit.

After the surgery, however, the plaintiff suffered from metal ions and particles that were released into his bloodstream.

The DePuy Pinnacle lawsuit states, “after the surgery, friction and wear between the cobalt-chromium metal head and cobalt-chromium metal liner caused large amounts of toxic cobalt-chromium metal ions and particles to be released into the plaintiff’s blood and tissue and bone surrounding the implants.”

The DePuy Pinnacle lawsuit further contends that because of this, the plaintiff suffered severe pain and discomfort. He also had to endure revision surgery to replace the right hip implant in September 2015.

According to the DePuy Pinnacle lawsuit, Ronald maintains that he will also have to undergo a second revision surgery on the left hip to replace the implant.lThe DePuy Pinnacle lawsuit contends that only recently had the plaintiff been aware of the serious risks involved in implanting a Pinnacle device.

The DePuy Pinnacle lawsuit states that the injuries that he had suffered are “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.”

DePuy Pinnacle Lawsuit Medical Device Facts

The issue resulting from the Pinnacle device are issues in that the device causes metallosis and cobalt toxicity. This results in the need for revision surgery and other serious adverse health complications.

The issues surrounding the Pinnacle device are the same issues that also surround the ASR XL Acetabular System and ASR Hip Resurfacing System.

In 2010, according to the DePuy Pinnacle lawsuit, the defendants in acknowledging the “high failure rate of the ASR device, recalled more than 93,000 ASR hip implants worldwide.”

Moreover, the DePuy Pinnacle lawsuit emphasizes that had the defendants conducted clinical trials of the Pinnacle device before its release on the market, “they would have discovered at the time what they ultimately learned in and around 2007–that the Pinnacle Device results in a high percentage of patients developing metallosis, biologic toxicity and an early and high failure rate.”

The DePuy Pinnacle Lawsuit is Case No. 3:17-cv-01999-K, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division.