Plaintiff Kellie T. has initiated a lawsuit against DePuy Orthopedics and Johnson & Johnson, alleging that she suffered hip replacement metallosis after receiving an implant created by the companies.

Kellie says she was implanted with the popular DePuy ASR hip implant on her right hip in September 2008 in Vermont. However, she says her  resulting hip replacement metallosis ended up causing her damages in the form of loss of services, economic losses, and injury. Kellie says that she had to have her DePuy ASR hip implant explanted in February 2018 as a result of the complications.

As a result of the personal injuries she sustained, she alleges that she developed hip replacement metallosis that would not have occurred if the implant had originally functioned satisfactorily and as intended.

She alleges in her lawsuit that she will be permanently harmed as a result of the complications and that she incurred medical expenses and will continue to incur medical expenses because of this situation. She also says that she lost wages and will suffer future loss of earning capacity and has been permanently harmed by serious metal poisoning, also known as metallosis.

The plaintiff says that she could not have known that she was injured by hip replacement metallosis — high levels of cobalt and chromium in her body — until after the date that she had her blood drawn and was advised of the results of the blood work.

Kellie is seeking damages for pain and suffering, emotional distress, economic loss, and punitive damages and has based the lawsuit of breach of express warranty, strict product liability failure to warn, strict liability manufacturing defect, strict product liability defective design, negligent breach of warranty, fraudulent concealment, negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent misrepresentation, constructive fraud, misrepresentation by omission, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Other plaintiffs have filed similar DuPuy ASR hip implant lawsuits after realizing they were suffering from metallosis. Metallosis involves metal breaking down from the device and traveling throughout the patient’s bloodstream. If not caught early enough, this can lead to serious complications and pain.

Those patients who received an implant but still suffered from hip replacement metallosis might have a claim against the manufacturer based on the grounds of a defective device or failure to warn about the possible side effects. Such a lawsuit could be the only avenue to the recovery of compensation.

Many plaintiffs who were implanted with a device they expected to last over the long term but suffered consequences, had to have these devices explanted. Some of those patients then developed hip replacement metallosis that they say is the fault of the manufacturer of the hip replacement device.

This DePuy ASR Hip Replacement Lawsuit is Case No. 1:18-dp-20077-JJH filed in the United States District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Western Division.