Doctor’s Statements Impact Zimmer Metal Hip Implant Lawsuits
By Andrea Gressman
A former medical consultant with Zimmer hip implants has revealed that the he had told the company about problems with their Zimmer metal hip implants but the firm did not heed his input. Instead, the company blamed high failure rates of Zimmer Durom Cup hip implants on surgeon errors, and continued its sales and marketing efforts. Now, patients who were negatively affected by Zimmer’s hip replacement products are using the doctor’s statements in their Zimmer hip implant lawsuit evidence with the help of their metal hip implant attorney.Zimmer Hip Implant Lawsuit Background
Zimmer manufacturers provide multiple types of hip implants hip replacement systems, including the Durom Cup. This Zimmer hip implant is a metal-on-metal hip implant designed to be used by patients who require hip replacement at a relatively young age. The Zimmer Durom Cup hip implant is designed to discourage the surrounding bone from growing in to the implant, and more than 13,000 people have received a Durom Cup hip implant in the United States.
The Zimmer hip implant was introduced in 2006, after it received approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In 2007, former Zimmer hip implant consultant, Dr. Lawrence Dorr, came out against the Zimmer metal hip implant, citing high failure rates. However, the company denied his opinions, saying that failure rates were caused by surgical error, not issues with the hip implant.
Patients continued to be implanted with Durom Cup hip implants, and complaints of failure rose from the field. In 2008, the company briefly suspended sales of the product, and consumers wondered if the Durom Cup implant was going to be recalled. However, a month afterward the company started selling the Zimmer hip implants again, saying that it had found no evidence that the Zimmer hip implants were defective in their design.
Consumers disagreed. They said that the metal-on-metal design didn’t hold together well enough and that the Zimmer hip implants loosened and failed over time. These patient opinions were backed up by a University of Wisconsin study that showed that Durom Cup implants had a higher failure rate statistically than other types of hip implants.
Zimmer Durom Cup Hip Implant Lawsuit Details
As consumers filed large numbers of Zimmer hip implant lawsuits, the cases were consolidated into a federal multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the State of New Jersey court system. Many of the Plaintiffs turned to the opinions expressed by Dr. Dorr in 2007 as evidence that the company had been informed that it’s metal hip implants didn’t work as intended and chose to deliberately ignore that information in favor of continuing to sell a faulty product.
Plaintiffs in Zimmer hip implant lawsuit say that the company failed in its duty to protect consumers from design flaws. They seek damages to cover medical expenses and the subsequent complications of the Durom Cup hip implant failures.
The first bellwether cases in the Zimmer hip implant lawsuit MDL should be heard later in 2012. They were originally consolidated into the MDL in 2010, but they do not have to be the only Zimmer lawsuits to be involved in the trial.
If you or someone you know has been negatively impacted by a Zimmer hip implant like the Durom Cup, reach out now and visit the Metal-on-Metal Replacement Hip Implant Class Action Lawsuit Investigation. Learn your rights as a patient and what you can do to join the Zimmer hip implant lawsuit proceedings before the hearings are done.
Updated September 7th, 2012
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