DePuy ASR Hip Recall Lawsuits Still Being Filed

DePuy Orthopedics’ ASR hip replacement system was recalled last year because of the large number of patients who were experiencing hip replacement failure and other complications associated with it. Many patients have now filed a lawsuit against DePuy, and the orthopedics giant has settled with a number of these plaintiffs out of court. Because of these settlements many other patients who have experienced hip implant failure associated with the company’s products have decided to file suit. Settlement amounts have not been disclosed, and they are not likely to be, as one of the appeals for a defendant of choosing to settle out of court is that many details of the DePuy hip settlement can be kept confidential as part of the settlement agreement.

A large number of the DePuy patients who have filed hip replacement lawsuits have had to undergo hip revision surgery, a procedure aimed at correcting problems with the failed or defective hip implant that the patient has already been fitted with. The problem with this is that hip revision surgery is more complicated, even, than initial hip replacement surgery – surgeons have to work around scar tissue that has built up since the first surgery, and tissue damage associated with hip implant failure can make things even more complicated.

Hilda Gibson, a recently retired teacher from Laredo, Texas, is one of the many DePuy patients to have undergone hip revision surgery. She first got her DePuy ASR hip replacement device in 2009, a year before the recall of the device took place. Almost immediately, she began experiencing symptoms of hip replacement device failure. Although the device is intended to last for around 15 years, Gibson’s only lasted two before she was forced to undergo hip revision surgery earlier this year. Some of the symptoms she was suffering included pain in the hip, groin, and lower back. She also had problems with the opposite hip, increased metal levels in her blood or soft tissue – a symptom of metal poisoning, or metallosis – and rashes.
Many patients suffer constant pain as a result of their hip replacement system failing. For this and many other reasons the number of patients filing lawsuits continues to climb, even to this day.