Since the recall of the DePuy ASR hip, the attorneys of PSB have filed almost 200 cases in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of plaintiffs who received this defective product. The design of the ASR hip causes it to fail years earlier than other hip replacements, necessitating revision surgeries, and causing other injuries. PSB brought these cases in California because the lead surgeon designer of the ASR hip, Dr. Thomas Schmalzried, is a resident of LA county, and because a significant number of events involving the hip took place in California. Because of these connections, the cases can be prosecuted in the state courts of California, even when the Plaintiff resides elsewhere.
Recently, the manufacturer of the ASR hip, DePuy Orthopaedics, and it’s parent company Johnson & Johnson, Inc., sought to dismiss one of the earliest filed cases involving a plaintiff who is not a resident of California. The defendants argued that the case (Darling v. DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc.) should be dismissed and prosecuted in Connecticut, the state in which Mr. Darling lives. While the defendants argued that this would serve the convenience of the parties, the fact is that dismissal of the case would have caused delay, forcing the Plaintiff to wait much longer for his day in court. On May 14, Judge Richard Kramer denied defendants’ motion, and agreed with PSB’s argument that it is appropriate for ASR cases to be prosecuted in California’s state courts. This was a significant victory for patients all over the country who received ASR hips and suffered injury as a result.
If you have questions about the DePuy ASR hip litigation, or any case involving a metal-on-metal hip implant, please contact Peter Polos or Pete Kaufman.
The Food and Drug Administration might soon be imposing stiffer rules on a certain medical device.
It was announced today that the FDA would meet on June 27 and 28 to consider whether or not they should require metal on metal hip implants to face additional testing if such devices aim to gain approval by the organization. This comes on the heels of numerous complaints regarding the devices.
Many people have endured the failure of such devices over the past few years, leaving the implants with a reputation of having a higher than acceptable rate of failure. Devices made from other materials have not broken at the same rate.In fact, the National Joint Registry of England and Wales initiated a study which showed that 6% of recipients of a metal on metal implant device needed corrective surgery, compared with the more commonly accepted 2% that is normal with ceramics or plastics.
Last May, the FDA ruled that manufacturers needed to provide more data on these devices to demonstrate their safety. Studies have also shown that metal devices can increase the level of metal ions in the blood, which could pose a danger. The FDA wants more information about this scenario as well.
As a San Francisco personal injury lawyer, it grieves me to see an entire product line possibly do harm to the very people it was meant to help. I hope the FDA makes the right decision in their June meeting, but whatever their choice, the impact will most certainly affect many people, including a Long Beach personal injury lawyer like me.
An act being considered by the Senate and the House of Representatives takes aim at medical devices whose design was based off of previously recalled products.
The Safety of Untested and New Devices Act, known as SOUND, was brought about largely because of complications with a transvaginal mesh implant that had numerous complications. The issue arose because that item shared much in its design with a previous device that was recalled in 1999.
If instated, the bill would enable the Food and Drug Administration to deny approval of items based off of designs of devices that were recalled in the past or are in the midst of a recall. To gain approval, the makers of such devices would have to be able to explain the differences in the the two items. The bill is designed to close what a representative of the bill has called a loophole in the 510(k) device approval process.
One of the other medical devices that would fall under the scrutiny of the new bill is a hip implant device. The recalled DePuy ASR, for instance, was itself based off of the design of the defective Pinnacle hip implant.
As a personal injury attorney in San Jose, I’ll be keeping a close watch on developments with this story. With the bill being considered this summer, this could be a monumental change in the safety status of medical devices. It’s my hope as a San Diego personal injury lawyer that defective products in the market eventually become a thing of the past.
More information continues to come out regarding the DePuy ASR hip implant and the problems associated with the device that led to a recall.
It was reported that, in 2009, the Food and Drug Administration sent DePuy a letter denying approval of one version of the hip implant device that was currently available in other parts of the world. Their denial was the result of reports from those countries that suggested the DePuy implant did not perform as adequately as DePuy’s data would have officials believe. They also pointed to tests which showed patients experiencing high levels of metal ions in the blood.
Then, weeks after the letter was released, Johnson & Johnson, DePuy’s parent company, decided to phase out the implants and sell off the remaining inventory for use in patients. This was done instead of an immediate recall, which wasn’t issued until August 2010, a year after the aforementioned letter.
DePuy claims that they phased out the product because of diminishing sales figures, not because of safety. What’s shocking to note is that the device approved for use in the United States in 2005, which was based on the same component as the item the letter concerns, actually has a higher failure rate than the unapproved device.
This truly saddens me as a Los Angeles personal injury lawyer. It’s one thing for a mistake to be made, but quite another for evidence to pop up which seems to correlate with behavior that endangers more lives. If wrongdoing is eventually proven, it’s my opinion as a Ventura personal injury lawyer that all victims receive just compensation for their pain.
First came the recalls that were initiated against hip implants and infant Tylenol made by subsidiaries of Johnson & Johnson. These were owing to serious safety concerns with the products. Now, another potential Johnson & Johnson company is being warned of its product’s deficiencies by the Food and Drug Administration.
The FDA fired off a warning letter to Synthes, a Swiss maker of medical devices, saying that they either need to fix problems discovered at a Pennsylvania plant or face steep fines. Synthes is in the process of being purchased by Johnson & Johnson to the tune of $23.1 billion, pending approval by antitrust officials.
The purchase should be lucrative, considering that Synthes made $4 billion last year alone in its sales of spinal disc implants, screws, and rods used in spinal surgery and to improve bone damage in trauma patients. A spokesperson has said that they will work to ensure the problems get fixed.
Those problems stem from an FDA inspection of a West Chester plant that uncovered violations that were never corrected. The FDA has stated that the company does not adequately monitor and investigate complaints that arise in association with their devices, and a failure to fix this oversight will result in regulations imposed by the FDA.
As a Los Angeles personal injury lawyer, I hate to think that important medical products that are intended to keep us safe could do harm. However, I also understand that this can happen, which is why it’s so important that corrective action be immediately forthcoming. It’s my wish as a personal injury lawyer in Long Beach that this issue gets rectified.
In a show of just how much damage a product recall can do to a bottom line, Johnson and Johnson has been reported to have taken charges of $3 billion, and their earnings forecast for 2012 is below previous projected numbers.
In 2010, the company’s DePuy Orthopedics Division announced a recall of their “metal-on-metal” hip replacement device. The issue involved the shedding of metal fragments, which led to debilitating injuries in those who had the device implanted. The failure rate for the recalled product hovered around the 30% rate, three times the norm for similar products. The full cost of the various recalls to the company can’t yet be measured since settlements have not yet occurred.
Right around the time that the artificial hips were being recalled, Johnson & Johnson also recalled a number of medicines, including Tylenol and Motrin, due to a lack of quality control at certain factories.
For the quarter, the company earned $218 million, compared with $1.9 billion a year earlier.
As a Los Angeles personal injury lawyer, I can attest that recalls are an important tool in keeping companies held accountable. They may hurt a company’s financial outlook, but companies should be able to rebuild as long as they do the responsible thing. A personal injury lawyer in Los Angeles like myself sees recalls not as a detriment to business but as an integral part of developing a trusting relationship between corporation and consumer.
According to recent news reports, Johnson & Johnson is hiring an outside firm to handle the recall of its DePuy ASR metal-on-metal hip implant.
This is an unusual move, as companies typically handle these matters with their in-house counsel and rely on the patient’s doctor to determine if a replacement is necessary. However, this decision means that the doctors chosen by the company Johnson & Johnson hired will determine if a replacement is necessary. That company is Broadspire Services Inc. While a doctor provided by the firm can’t override a personal physician, it does mean that funds can be withheld from paying for a revision surgery if the firm’s doctor does not believe a replacement is required.
Patients and lawyers are claiming that this move will limit Johnson & Johnson’s financial responsibility as well as patients’ access to replacement hips. DePuy officials maintain that the outside hire is simply to ensure that funds are distributed to those who require replacements directly related to the recall, and not for another reason such as a fall.
As a DePuy hip recall lawyer, I find this choice atypical. I believe this company needs to be held responsible for their actions and would like to provide legal services to anyone who has experienced pain and suffering as a result of this hip replacement. It is my hope that everyone who has been affected by this recall has access to medical treatment and revision surgery. If you have received a hip replacement, regardless of whether or not you’ve experienced pain, I urge you to contact a hip replacement recall lawyer. Statistics have shown that a majority of the DePuy hip replacements will fail, and the law limits the amount of time in which a claim can be filed. Action is necessary now to protect your rights in the future.
The lawsuits against ASR hip replacement manufacturers Johnson & Johnson and DePuy Orthopaedics are continually being filed, according to recent news sources.
Over 350 cases were filed in a Ohio Federal court in August alone. All of the cases about the metal-on-metal implants are tied to one case undergoing pre-trial proceedings in North Ohio. In order to eliminate delays and to promote judicial efficiency, Judge David Katz allowed the patients to consolidate their cases in a multi-district litigation. Texas has also adopted a similar policy toward case consolidation in order to avoid district transfers.
Since the direct filing option was made available in January, more than 1,700 cases have been filed, with 700 in the last two months alone. If you or someone you care about received a DePuy hip replacement, it is strongly recommended that you contact a DePuy ASR recall lawyer. You can contact a DePuy hip recall lawyer at our law firm to talk about protecting your rights. Even if you have not yet experienced symptoms of failure, it’s important to talk to an attorney about your hip replacement as statistics show that the majority of these hip replacements will fail. Remember, the law limits the amount of time you have to file a claim, so act immediately.
Thousands of the ASR hip replacement systems manufactured by Johnson & Johnson and DePuy Orthopaedics have failed, both before and after the recall that was announced in August of 2010. These patients, who experienced pain and disability as a result of the faulty hips, now require painful and obtrusive revisional surgery, years before expected. These victims are holding the manufacturers accountable and have filed claims against Johnson & Johnson and DePuy, seeking damages for the suffering they have endured.
Many of the devices remain implanted in other patients, who have not yet experienced a failure or significant injury as a result of the ASR hip implant. However, the British Orthopaedic Association has issued statistics that show up to 50% of ASR hips fail within six years of implantation. This is an extremely short period, when one considers that other comparative devices last around 15 to 20 years, and sometimes longer.
Those who received an ASR hip but have not experienced failure or complications may be under the impression that they needn’t yet contact a lawyer regarding their implant. However, those patients need to know that many states limit the amount of time in which a person can claim damages. In some states, the time period expires even before the ASR defective hip is replaced. Statistics have shown that a substantial amount of these devices will fail, though many may not have yet. With that in mind, the attorneys at Panish Shea and Boyle urge anyone who has received an ASR hip replacement to speak with a DePuy Hip Recall Lawyer about your case immediately.
The hip replacement recall lawyers at Panish Shea and Boyle are experienced in this matter and are passionate about holding the manufacturers of this product accountable for a product they knew was hazardous for months before making a recall. Contact us right away to include your claim for damages, even if your hip has not yet been replaced. Prompt action is necessary to protect your rights, as the opportunity to do so may pass in the future. As statistics show, more than half of the ASR hips will fail, afflicting patients with unnecessary pain and suffering. Contact a DePuy ASR recall lawyer to help you protect your rights for now and for the future.
