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Hip implants are a common procedure today. Prosthetic hip replacement becomes a necessary surgery after a person suffers tumor removal, serious injury to the pelvis, or a lifetime of rheumatoid arthritis. However, not all prosthetic hips are of the same quality. In some cases, the replacement hips are seriously flawed and must also be replaced.
December 2, 2016 became a day in which medical product liability history was made. A Texas jury awarded the third largest damages claim to six plaintiffs in a defective medical device lawsuit suit stemming from Johnson & Johnson hips. The award was $1 billion against Johnson & Johnson. The award to the plaintiffs included $30 million in actual damages. The punitive damages awarded make this the largest defective medical device award in 2016.
The plaintiffs in the medical product liability lawsuit held that the Johnson & Johnson DePuy Unit, which manufactures Pinnacle replacement hips, withheld information about the likely failure of their product from both doctors and patients. The metal-on-metal artificial hips failed and had to be removed by another surgery. But this was not the first time the company faced this problem.
In 2010, three years before maker Johnson & Johnson decided to remove the defective medical device from the market, the company recalled 93,000 implants citing a 12 percent failure rate. Of course, a recall means thousands of patients had to undergo yet another painful surgery with months of recovery.
Earlier this year, a jury in Dallas, Texas awarded $502 million to five patients who received the defective Pinnacle replacement hips. In fact, 2016 was a huge year in medical product liability loss for J&J. Of the seven largest verdicts’ in 2016, six go to Johnson & Johnson, half of which involved the defective medical device.
If you or someone you know has received the Johnson & Johnson Pinnacle replacement hip and has not yet filed a claim, there is still time. This defective medical device is likely to cause problems even if it has not already. In fact, J&J only stopped selling the defective medical device after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration changed regulations related to artificial hips.
Philadelphia defective medical device lawyers at Brookman, Rosenberg, Brown & Sandler are dedicated to making sure that anyone harmed by a defective medical device is justly compensated. We have an extensive track record and offer a confidential consultation in our convenient Center City Philadelphia location. If you live anywhere in the Delaware Valley, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey, contact us online or call now 800-369-0899 or 215-569-4000.