A California jury has ordered Wright Medical Technology Inc. to pay $4.5 million to a plaintiff who suffered severe hip implant complications. This verdict is the first among 1,200 metal hip implant lawsuits making similar claims.

Plaintiff Alan W. chose the Profemur R implant for his hip replacement procedure. Rather than making his life easier, Alan’s hip implant failed less than three years after implant and caused him severe, life-altering pain. In the hip implant lawsuit, Alan recounted the morning his implant failed. He went to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, but on the way his implant failed, causing Alan to suffer debilitating pain and undergo extensive surgery to fix the hip implant failure.

According to the metal hip implant lawsuit, the hip implant device was manufactured using a technique called laser guidance. Laser guidance marks ended up etched too deeply in the device, ultimately resulting in device failure. Along with the initial manufacturing defect, Alan’s lawyers alleged that the device failed because the surgeon failed to implant it correctly, causing even slight movements to be detrimental.

The jury found that Alan’s hip implant contained a manufacturing defect and that the defect injured Alan and his wife. However, they stopped short of finding that Wright was negligent in designing the device. As a result of the jury’s findings, Wright escaped paying for Alan’s medical expenses, but was ordered to pay Alan and his wife $4 million for past and future pain and mental suffering, along with $500,000 for loss of consortium.

Alan’s hip implant lawsuit is the first of 600 metal hip implant suits to be heard in a coordinated litigation in California state court, which includes an additional 600 cases in a multidistrict litigation based in Georgia federal court. Although the specific injuries and types of failures vary, all of the cases involve similar charges against Wright, alleging that the Profemur metal hip implants are subject to metal-on-metal failure.

Overview of Metal Hip Implant Complications

Doctors have routinely performed hip replacement implant surgeries for the past 40 years. Patients suffering orthopaedic complications like arthritis can choose from a variety of hip implant options. Traditionally, plastic and ceramic models were offered to patients who needed a new hip bone, but recently metal-on-metal hip implants were introduced to the market. Metal-on-metal hip implants have generally been marketed to younger patients with claims of increased durable and longevity when compared to their plastic or ceramic counterparts. The metal-on-metal hip implants were also advertised to be custom-fit to patients and better able to handle physically-demanding activities like exercise.

Unfortunately, problems with these products became evident not long after their release.  According to medical experts, most of the problems lie in the ball-and-socket joint of these devices. When rubbed together, these parts release metal debris into the patient’s bloodstream, leading to a variety of complications like device failure, corrosion, infection, and metallosis, or blood-metal poisoning. Despite these adverse effects, many manufacturing companies neglected to mention these possibilities on the products’ warning labels, and failed to give special surgical instructions to doctors. Ultimately, this has led to numerous product liability lawsuits against companies for claims of negligence, false advertising, concealing information, and misrepresenting a product.

This Metal Hip Implant Lawsuit is Case No. BC475958, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles.