Plaintiff Says Stryker Hip Replacement Caused Metal Poisoning

Tennessee plaintiff Marian Miller is suing Stryker Corp., alleging that Stryker’s Rejuvenate hip replacement system caused her debilitating and permanent damage. The Rejuvenate is a metal-on-metal hip implant approved by the FDA on February 9, 2009. It was the subject of a Stryker hip implant recall in June 2012.

According to her lawsuit, Miller received the Stryker Rejuvenate system during hip replacement surgery on October 5, 2010. Stryker had not warned her, or her physicians, of any of the possible hip replacement complications she could incur from the Rejuvenate implant, her lawsuit claims.

Shortly after her hip surgery, the plaintiff suffered debilitating pain and elevated nausea. A medical examination revealed that she had been suffering from heavy metal poisoning in her blood. Miller underwent hip revision surgery on March 25, 2013 to correct the blood poisoning, along with any other possible problems left behind by the metal hip implant.

The plaintiff states that her suffering and exceeded medical costs were a direct result of the defendant’s negligent actions and defective product. Miller is suing Stryker for being directly responsible for manufacturing, distributing and selling an allegedly defective medical product, as well as for failing to notify her of the possible hip replacement complications that might occur. Miller is suing Stryker for medical costs and other punitive damages.

The plaintiff also states that Stryker failed to tell her or her physician about any post-market studies the company had done linking dangerous complications to the Stryker Rejuvenate hip implant. It was not until April 2012 that Stryker warned physicians and surgeons of these devastating possibilities, and issued a federal voluntary recall of their product a few months later.

Metal-on-Metal Hip Implants Defective, Lawsuits Say

Metal-on-metal hip implants like the Rejuvenate were designed to be superior in every aspect to their plastic and ceramic hip implant cousins. The main components in these metal hip implants are titanium and cobalt, which were believed to outlast ceramic hip implants and be more flexible in terms of mobility and function.

However, it was not long after the metal-on-metal hip implants were released that the injury reports started coming in. In particular, Stryker had developed a patented titanium alloy that they had used for their Rejuvenate hip replacement system, believing that it would avoid the same cause of injury that the other devices did. This cause of injury was a condition called metallosis.

Metallosis, or metal poisoning in the blood, was occurring because as the metal device moved within the body, metal particles corroded off the product and into the blood stream. This caused severe nausea, tissue infection, and extreme pain and suffering for many patients.

Many medical and legal experts believe that the Rejuvenate hip replacement system should not have been released to the market to begin with, and that the product got through due a loophole in the FDA’s manufacturing requirements. This regulation states that as long as the device proves to be able to work in equivalent efficiency to a similar product already released, the medical device can enter the market without testing.

Miller is suing Stryker for negligence, and is seeking over $75,000 plus any additional damages the court may award her.

The case is Marian Miller v. Howmedica Osteonics, et al., Case No. 13-cv-01962-DWF-FLN, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Tennessee, Knoxville Division.

Obtain a Free Hip Implant Attorney Consultation

If you believe that you or a loved one has been the victim of a metal hip defect, you have legal options. Please visit the Stryker Metal Hip Implant Class Action Lawsuit Investigation . There, you can submit your claim for a free legal review and if it qualifies for legal action, a seasoned hip implant lawyer will contact you for a free, no-obligation consultation. You will be guided through the litigation process at no out-of-pocket expenses or hidden fees. The metal hip attorneys working this investigation do not get paid until you do.