A woman has filed a DePuy hip replacements lawsuit alleging the device was defective.

In September 2009, plaintiff Pollyann C. underwent a right hip implant surgery that included a Pinnacle metal-on-metal femoral head, metal insert and acetabular cup.

She claims she later began experiencing thigh pain and swelling, numbness and tingling in her thigh. She also reports suffering “foot drop,” which means she was unable to flex her toes and ankle due to nerve injury.

In 2017, Pollyann was allegedly diagnosed with a pseudotumor on her right hip, determined to be caused by metal particles. A blood test revealed she had high levels of both chromium and cobalt.

In December 2017, she says she underwent a revision of her right hip implant due to the failure of the initial surgery, neuropathy of her right sciatic nerve that led to the foot drop issue, and metal poisoning.

According to the DePuy hip replacements lawsuit, DePuy should have known “the potential risks associated with the metal-on-metal implant and its impact on patients receiving the implant.” The Pinnacle metal-on-metal system allegedly exposed Pollyann to “unnecessary risks and unreasonable dangers.”

Plaintiff: DePuy Hip Replacements Were Defective

Plaintiffs like Pollyann claim the DePuy hip replacements were defective devices that were placed on the market with no warning of the true dangers of the poor design.

When pursuing FDA approval, DePuy was able to fast-track the Pinnacle hip system because the company insisted the metal-on-metal implant was “substantially equivalent” to another safe and effective product already on the market.

The DePuy hip replacements lawsuit says that representation was false, and that DePuy “chose to label and categorize the implant as substantially equivalent to previous implants even though a manufacturing defect existed at that time.”

Plaintiffs say the Pinnacle hip system allows tiny metal fragments to fret away as the metal components rub against one another through normal, everyday movement. Over time, the metal ions can leach into the nearby bone and tissue and eventually, enter the patient’s blood stream. Bone death, tissue death, pseudotumors and metal poisoning are all indications the Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip system may have severely injured the patients the hip system presumably was designed to help.

The DePuy hip replacements lawsuit alleges the design flaws could lead to “early failure, painful, harmful, and unreasonably dangerous physical reactions to toxic metallic particles and ions, death of tissue, and the need for revision surgery as a result of long-term metal-on-metal bearing.”

Plaintiffs accuse DePuy of breaching their duties to doctors and patients by failing to ensure the Pinnacle hip system was safe and effective prior to releasing it on the market.

The DePuy Hip Replacements Lawsuit is Case No. 3:18-cv-00524-K in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division.