A New Hampshire resident has filed a lawsuit against the Zimmer medical device company for severe injuries he allegedly suffered after he underwent a total knee replacement.

The injuries suffered was due to a defective Zimmer Persona tibial plate device, the plaintiff claims.

The plaintiff, Thomas W., had undergone the total knee replacement on August 20, 2014 at Holy Family Hospital located in Methuen, Mass. It was there that he had the Zimmer Persona tibial plate implanted on his right knee.

Thomas alleges the implant later failed, and because of the malfunctioned Zimmer Persona tibial plate, he underwent revision surgery on April 6, 2015.

The plaintiff says he had “suffered injuries as a result of implantation and revision/explantation of the Zimmer Persona Knee device manufactured by defendants.”

Thomas contends that he suffered injuries from the Zimmer Persona tibial plate including “economic loss, diminished earning capacity, [and] pain and suffering, from the permanent injuries caused by the defective knee device.”

And as a result, moreover, “the revised knee implant is not functioning at its full potential, due to the loss of bone cartilage, surface and tissue from the original defective knee device,” the Zimmer lawsuit claims.

Thomas says that even through an “exercise of reasonable diligence,” neither physicians nor the plaintiff could have ever detected the malfunctioning nature of the Zimmer Persona tibial plate.

The plaintiff is seeking recovery of “compensatory damages for pain and suffering and emotional distress and for economic loss as well as punitive damages.”

The Zimmer Persona tibial plate was recalled by the FDA, or Food and Drug Administration, on March 12, 2015. The Zimmer tibial plant recall alerted the public that the tibial plate instruments and modular brackets have been associate with  long and short term consequences.

Some after-market reports state that the Zimmer Persona tibial plate did not connect properly to the surrounding bone. In the short term, there are also issues in delivering appropriate initial fixation that can cause patient pain.

The FDA also reportedly warned the defendants about “a series of quality system violations” that they state were identified during re-evaluations made in a Zimmer Montreal plant in January.

Moreover, according to the FDA, “the inspections, from January 25 through January 28, turned up nine quality system violations that were issued in a Form 483 notice.”

The FDA also claimed that the company lacked, “procedures for implementing corrective and preventative actions; ensuring equipment calibration, inspection maintenance; receiving and tracking medical device reports; failing to file correction or removal within 10 business days; and failing to record the reason for not reporting corrections or removals.”

The defendants face nine different counts including violations of consumer protection statuses, breach of warranty, and negligence.

The Zimmer Persona Tibial Plate Lawsuit is Case No. 1:17-cv-10742-RWZ, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.