Counsel Advised for DePuy Hip Recipients

In Summer 2010, a large-scale recall of the DePuy hip implant was issued. It is important for any patient who received a defective implant to obtain the advice of a physician and a lawyer as soon as possible. Legal experts caution that under no circumstances should anyone sign any documents they may receive from Johnson & Johnson, the parent company of DePuy Orthopaedics, without first consulting a legal professional.
More than 35,000 individuals in the United States alone were implanted with the ASRTM XL Acetabular System. It was later found that this device had a failure rate of at least thirteen percent in all patients, with small-framed or frail patients experiencing higher rates of failure. In most of those unfortunate cases, painful revision surgery is required in order to fix the problem. The manufacturer of the faulty implant, DePuy, recalled all of its ASR products in August 2010 and instructed doctors to schedule follow-up appointments with their patients who had received a faulty implant.

Shielding Your Medical Records and Benefits

Reports are circulating that both DePuy and Johnson & Johnson have made efforts to reach ASR recipients directly in order to ask them to turn over their private medical records and personal information. Safeguarding such particulars may prove to be invaluable to patients in the event of a DePuy class-action lawsuit, which would have the prospect of yielding millions in compensation.
Giving up information now may be detrimental to hip recipients if or when a DePuy settlement is reached. Nor is the danger limited to entreaties from the responsible companies. Lawyers studying with the issue advise patients to be wary even of signing documents that come from a trusted doctor. While your physician may have only the best intentions for your health, he or she may be innocently ignorant of the full legal implications of their decisions.

Physicians May Be Paid to Promote DePuy

Even more troubling is the fact that not all doctors make their patients’ health an inviolate priority. The New Haven Independent recently reported that DePuy made more than $80 million in payments to doctors—almost always the same doctors who performed the implantation surgery—to promote their faulty ASR metal-on-metal system.
Although there are exceptions, the vast majority of physicians undoubtedly have their patients’ best interests at heart and do their work with integrity. But this does not mean that patients should blindly trust any name followed by an M.D. It is up to each individual to protect him or herself from exploitation by one of the biggest medical corporations on the planet. Doing research and informing yourself now could pay off handsomely in the case of a DePuy settlement.