A Minnesota woman recently filed a hip implant lawsuit against Howmedica Osteonics and other defendants associated with the manufacture and marketing of the Rejuvenate Modular hip system.

Howmedica Osteonics was purchased by Stryker Corporation, one of the largest medical equipment manufacturers worldwide, in 1998. Stryker recalled two of its hip implant systems in 2012.

These systems were the Rejuvenate Modular and the ABG II Modular-Neck Hip Stems. Stryker has faced numerous hip implant lawsuits since this announcement.

This Stryker hip implant recall came in July 2012, three months after the medical equipment giant issued an “Urgent Field Safety Notice” to medical professionals such as implant surgeons and hospital risk managers. The notice alerted these medical professionals about the potential health risks the company had discovered linked to their two products.

One of these potential hip implant hazards is corrosion, which allows tiny shards of the implant’s metal components to affect a patient’s tissues, bones, and/or bloodstream.

Plaintiff Hazel C. claims in her hip implant lawsuit that she was implanted with a Rejuvenate Modular hip stem in her left side in 2011. In 2015, the plaintiff was forced to have left hip stem tissue removed. This removal was, according to the hip implant lawsuit, due to injury directly caused by the hip implantation from 2011.

Hazel filed this hip implant lawsuit for damages such as injury to herself and economic and other loss.

She claims that excessive levels of chromium and cobalt metals from the hip implant device caused the injury. Hazel further alleges that Howmedica Osteonics and the other defendants are at fault for this injury, because their actions or inactions “proximately caused the injuries” to the plaintiff.

Hazel alleges that she could not have known that excessive levels of chromium and cobalt metals had caused the injuries until after she had learned of the Rejuvenate Modular hip implant device’s recall. According to her Stryker hip lawsuit, the Rejuvenate Modular hip implant recall was due to a defect in the device.

Furthermore, the hip implant lawsuit claims the plaintiff did not know that her injuries were caused by excessive levels of chromium and cobalt metals until after she had her blood drawn and tested. Hazel was unaware of the alleged cause of her injuries until she was advised by medical professionals that the abnormalities in her blood work were “attributable to a defect in the device.”

Hazel’s hip implant lawsuit brings several allegations against Stryker, including: negligence, strict product liability, failure to warn, breach of express and implied warranties, violation of consumer fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and several other counts.

The Minnesota woman f requests damages that compensate her injuries according to the metal hip lawsuit, applicable statutory damages of the state, attorneys’ fees and costs, costs of the suit, restitution of disgorgement of profits, and other relief that the Court deems proper.

If you or someone you know has experienced complications due to a hip implant system from Howmedica Osteonics or another medical device manufacturer, you may be able to file a metal on metal hip implant lawsuit.

The Hip Implant Lawsuit is Case No. 0:15-cv-02449-DWF-FLN, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.