Stryker Hip Replacement Victim Fires Back with Lawsuit

Borsett received his Stryker hip implant on March 21, 2011 at the Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, New York. According to his lawsuit, “As a direct and proximate result of defendants placing the defective Devices into the stream of commerce, Plaintiff has suffered and continues to suffer both injuries and damages, including but not limited to: past, present and future physical and mental pain and suffering; past, present and future medical, hospital, will require future explant of the devices, rehabilitative and pharmaceutical expenses, lost wages; and, other related damages.”

Stryker opted for a voluntary recall of the Rejuvenate hip replacement system in June 2012, which was too late for victims like Borsett.

Stryker Hip Lawsuit Details Painful Complications

The Rejuvenate System has only been on the market a few years, receiving clearance in 2008. So what happened with Borsett’s faulty hip implant?

He complained of pain and suffering, but there was nothing “technically” wrong with initial diagnostic testing. “Further diagnostic workup involved blood testing indicating the presence of heavy metal ion contamination in his blood,” the Stryker hip lawsuit says.

Metallosis, or metal poisoning, has been commonly reported with metal on metal hip implants — but Rejuvenate wasn’t a metal on metal device. However, it did have metal on metal components, which ended up having similar hip replacement complications. Because of this poisoning, Borsett will have to undergo hip revision surgery, which is often more painful and dangerous than an initial hip implant.

Stryker Rejuvenate Hip Recall Too Late, Plaintiff says

In April of 20l2, Stryker issued an Urgent Field Safety Notice to surgeons and hospitals in the United States regarding the Rejuvenate System.

“In this notice, Defendants acknowledged that it had received reports of device failures due to heavy metal contamination. The urgent Field Safety Notice specifically referred to failures at the taper neck junction between the neck and the stem due to corrosion and fretting,” the Stryker lawsuit says.

The Rejuvenate hip replacement system had initially “slipped” through the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) stringent testing because the company showed that the Rejuvenate was similar enough to other systems that had passed such testing.

However, “This corrosion and fretting was exactly the same failure mechanism that Defendants had warranted would not occur because of the Rejuvenate System’s design and composition. It was also exactly the same failure mechanism that the medical and scientific community had been studying and documenting in modular implant device design since the 1980’s,” the Stryker hip lawsuit says.

Borsett is somewhat “lucky” since his metal poisoning was caught in time; it can be lethal in many cases.

His hip implant lawsuit notes that Stryker “failed to timely report adverse events; failed to timely conduct failure investigations and analyses; failed to timely report any and all information concerning product failures and corrections; failed to timely inform the FDA of unanticipated adverse effects, increases in the incidence of adverse effects, or device failures necessitating a recall; failed to conduct necessary design validation; and, sold a misbranded and unsafe medical device for implantation into the general public.”

A Long Road Ahead

Borsett is taking action even though he’s still facing a painful hip revision surgery. He’s suing Stryker for common law negligence, breach of warranty, failure to warn, design defect, manufacturing defect, and punitive damages.

The number of Stryker hip replacement lawsuits filed shows that Borsett isn’t alone. He’ll be receiving a trial by jury, joining hundreds of other hip implant victims who have similar stories.

Borsett is asking for compensatory damages, actual damages, punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interest, all costs and expenses, attorney’s fees and any other compensation the court sees as appropriate.

He says that Stryker “knew of the subject products defective and unreasonably dangerous
nature as set forth herein, but continued to design, develop, manufacture, distribute and sell the Rejuvenate System so as to maximize Defendants’ sales and profits at the expense of the health and safety of the public.”

The case is Roger W. Borsett v. Howmedica Osteonics Corporation, et al., MDL No.: 13-2441, the United States District Court District of Minnesota.

Did Your Stryker Hip Implant Fail?

Were you implanted with a Stryker hip replacement that went wrong? If this happened to you, you may have a Stryker legal claim. Learn more by visiting the Stryker Metal Hip Implant Recall Class Action Lawsuit Investigation right now. You’ll be able to submit your information at no charge and a Stryker hip lawyer will contact you if you have a case for a free case review.