An Ohio woman recently filed a lawsuit against DePuy after suffering from a damaging metal-on-metal hip implant failure.

The plaintiff, Pamela C., was implanted with a DePuy Pinnacle metal hip implant on Jan. 18, 2006.

However, after the implant, the plaintiff began suffering from severe pain surrounding her right hip. After undergoing tests, the plaintiff was discovered to have elevated levels of cobalt and chromium metals.

Because of these symptoms and pain, the plaintiff underwent a revision surgery on May 11, 2015, where her Pinnacle device was replaced with a non metal-on-metal device to avoid suffering again from a similar metal-on-metal hip implant failure.

The plaintiff filed her metal-on-metal hip implant failure lawsuit on multiple counts, including defective design, failure to warn, product liability, negligence, fraud. The plaintiff is requesting punitive damages.

The DePuy Pinnacle Device

The DePuy Pinnacle Device is widely popular as a hip implant. According to the manufacturers, almost 150,000 people have gone through a total hip replacement with a Pinnacle Device.

While this sounds like a statistic that reflects positively on DePuy, it may also prompt concern over the safety of the large number of people who currently have DePuy devices implanted.

Indeed, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received over 1,300 individual adverse events reports over Pinnacle device metal-on-metal hip implant failure problems.

Despite the plethora of complaints and reports regarding the safety and efficacy of the device, DePuy has continued to market its Pinnacle device as safe and effective.

However, lawsuits allege that DePuy is actually aware of the link between its Pinnacle device and a number of serious hip replacement problems, including metallosis, biologic toxicity, and a high rate of metal-on-metal hip implant failure.

In fact, the DePuy hip implant systems have already been taken off the Australian market because of its early and high rate of failure.

Hip replacement lawsuits claim that, not only was the Pinnacle hip implant defectively designed, but the device’s warning labels failed to adequately warn of the device’s risks.

Lawsuits allege that DePuy chose to actively conceal the device’s defects, as well as its early rate of failure and known complications of hip replacement with the device in order to push their product at the risk of consumers’ health and safety.

Had the plaintiffs been adequately informed of these risks, they may not have had the device implanted in the first place and could have avoided the painful complications connected with metal-on-metal hip implant failure.

If you or someone you love has experienced hip replacement problems due to a metal-on-metal hip implant failure such as the Pinnacle Device from DePuy or another company, you may be able to file a lawsuit.

The Metal-on-Metal Hip Implant Failure Lawsuit is Case No. 3:11-md-2244-K, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division.