Share on Facebook

Share on Facebook

Having surgery is bad enough without needing to have more surgery. But that’s too often the case when someone gets a knee replacement surgery implant known as a Zimmer NexGen CR-Flex.

This defective device can loosen inside the body soon after surgery, making it necessary to have corrective or “revision” surgery soon after the first one. This follow-up surgery may be needed within months of the initial surgery, or perhaps within the first two years, despite the fact that the Zimmer Holdings product is supposed to last for up to 15 years.

The problem is that almost 10 per cent of such implants have been known to loosen soon after surgey, according to a recent survey. This can cause pain, discomfort and reduced mobility — the very things which the knee replacement surgery was supposed to correct in the first place.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

Again, innocent Americans are being threatened by a potentially harmful medical device in which they placed their trust. In this case, a device that’s been used during breast surgery reportedly has left tiny particles of the heavy metal tungsten in women’s breast tissue and chest muscles.

According to a New York Times report, the device in question is an Axxent FlexiShield Mini, which may have harmed 30 women so far.

These women were exposed to the device as part of a study of radiation techniques for breast cancer. This included surgical incisions through which the defective medical device was placed.

The Times says the incidents have cast “doubt on the safeguards for people who participate in medical research and on the Food and Drug Administration’s ability to protect the public from flawed medical devices.”
(more…)

Share on Facebook

At last, the Food and Drug Administration — which is supposed to protect Americans from defective drugs and defective medical devices — is taking another look at hip replacement implants. Such implants, which the FDA previously approved, are causing misery and pain to many Americans who have had hip replacement surgery.

The problem is that these hip implants use a relatively new approach involving metal-on-metal ball-in-socket joints. Inside the body, these metal joints grind against each other and flake away tiny shards of cobalt and chromium

Such toxic metals can cause pain, inflammation and decreased movement for hip replacement surgery patients. In fact, some victims have pursued a defective medical device lawsuit to recover the financial costs of their hip implant injury.

One manufacturer noted for producing defective hip implants is DePuy Orthopaedics, a division of pharmaceutical and medical device giant Johnson & Johnson. (more…)

Share on Facebook

It shouldn’t be easy to sell a bad product. But DePuy had advantages while marketing its defective hip implants known as an ASR Hip System.

For one thing, the Food and Drug Administration did not require DePuy to run any trials or clinical tests to ensure the products were safe. For another, DePuy, owned by monolithic global corporation Johnson & Johnson, had the deep pockets to pay off a reported  $80 million to American surgeons while pushing its hip implants with their support.

DePuy claims these payments were strictly legit and involved promotion, consultation and research. The U.S. Department of Justice sees it otherwise. In 2007, it charged DePuy and three other manufacturers with using kickbacks to physicians to sell their products.
(more…)

Share on Facebook

Americans don’t like becoming victims. But their own government’s Food and Drug Administration is allowing that to happen.

Thanks to an FDA loophole known as “Section 510(k) clearance,” orthopedic manufactures aren’t required to stage clinical trials to prove a medical device is safe before selling it to you. That means Americans become guinea pigs or test subjects for products which could be dangerous.

The DePuy ASR Hip System implant is such a product. The metal-on-metal ball-and-socket device grinds tiny shards of toxic chromium and cobalt into the body. This can cause great pain and can damage bones and sensitive tissues. (more…)

Share on Facebook

Imagine walking down the street making a clicking sound with every step that is so loud people stare. That’s what happened to Kim Horbas the summer after she had hip replacement surgery in February 2008 with a device made by a division of Johnson & Johnson, DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc.

The clicking sound was the first sign the Champaign, Illinois woman had that something might be terribly wrong with the device doctors put in her hip. It turns out the doctors themselves had no idea that the DePuy device had a high failure rate.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

Veteran personal injury attorney Jim S. Adler often warns people “Don’t be a victim twice.” That advice certainly applies to victims of DePuy Orthopaedics defective implants for hip replacement surgery.

Such persons endured hip replacement surgery with the assurance that it would last them at least 15 years before another surgery might be needed. Instead, some have suffered pain almost immediately, when the DePuy hip replacement implant — a metall ball and socket joint — failed and eroded. This spewed tiny amounts of chromium and cobalt into their bodies.

That defective medical device meant those persons quickly needed another surgery, or “revision” surgery, to correct the problem. DePuy, which manufactured the failed device, has issued a hip implant recall for the devices, meaning it will pay for victims’ revision surgery.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

A manufacturer of a defective medical device has harmed thousands of Americans. Now it wants them to be victims again. That’s because DePuy Orthopaedics, whose ASR Hip System has caused many “revision surgeries” after failing to do its job, now wants to “recall” its products from others who suffer pain due to its failures

DePuy wants these victims to avoid exploring their legal rights but instead to report for another hip replacement surgery, at DePuy’s expense. It does not want victims to press for their legal rights in terms of all the damages done by this defective product.

But many victims of the defective hip replacement device should know better. They should know that by alerting an experienced defective medical device lawyer or defective products attorney they can pursue full and just financial compensation for their losses via a hip replacement lawsuit.

(more…)

Share on Facebook