Lawyer Resources for Medical Device Failures

DePuy ASR Cases ValueAll civil lawsuits come down to one thing— money. Sure, there will always be people who claim that they have filed their lawsuit out of a a sense of social responsibility and a genuine desire to help mankind, but injury cases– and medical device cases in particular– are really about getting financial compensation for an injury.

As soon as the DePuy ASR hip prosthesis was pulled from the market in August, 2010, a stream of people with these defective metal hip implants filed lawsuits against the manufacturer alleging amongst several things that the device resulted in pain, disability which may had resulted in the need for additional medical care or perhaps prevented a person from going about their employment.

Status of the current lawsuits

metal artifical hipThe artificial hip failure problems that began with DePuy now have cast a broader spotlight on the entire artificial hip industry that utilizes similar metal-on-metal designs.  

The acknowledgement of problems with the DePuy ASR device last year, may yet precipitate similar acknowledgements from other manufacturers about defects with their artificial hips comprised of similar metals.

Over the next decade, an estimated 50,000 people per year will likely require a revisionary surgery due to a defective metal-on-metal hip that they we originally given.  The heart of the probelm stems from the fact that metal particles shear off from the hip in large number of patients.  

DePuyFor almost a year now, people with DePuy artificial hips have been digesting the steady stream of news related to the problems associated with the hardware in their bodies.  Now, new data seems to paint a far more dire situation than originally disclosed by the medical device manufacturer.

A recent statement released from The British Orthopaedic Association and the British Hip Society now estimates the failure rates of the DePuy ASR XL Acetabular System to be far higher than originally estimated.

By the groups’ calculations, the DePuy system failures may necessitate additional surgeries in 49% of people within six years after the system was put in place.

With a sizable percentage of nursing home patients diagnosed with diabetes, we have been contacted by a number of current and former clients regarding a product recall involving Medtronic’s MiniMed Paradigm insulin pumps.  The medical device recall was initiated in July, 2009 after defects were discovered in a particular lot of the infusion sets

insulinpumpInfusion sets are the thin, plastic tubing that delivers insulin from an insulin pump to the patient’s body. 

The recalled infusion sets can be identified by both the lot number (Lot 8, Quick-set infusion sets) and the reference numbers: MMT-396, MMT-397, MMT-398 and MMT-399 (lots starting with a number ‘8’).

Defects With DePuy Hip Replacement HardwareEvery year, almost 200,000 hip replacement surgeries are performed in the United States for a variety of reasons including trauma and arthritic conditions.

For many of the hip-replacement patients, a hip replacement surgery is particularly difficult due to the invasive nature of the procedure and the lengthy recovery time.

As a lawyer who frequently works with the elderly, I have witnessed how a hip replacement procedure can really negatively impact the quality of life.  Sadly, hip replacement surgeries in many elderly people results in a rapid downward spiral in their physical and psychological well-being.  Some studies suggest that more than 25% of patients over 65-years-old will die within a year of the procedure.

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