Product Liability

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Defective Hip Lawsuits

    The firm is representing a number of people who have experienced failures of an artificial hip manufactured by Depuy, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.

    New information is surfacing tending to show that Johnson & Johnson was not operating in an open and honest manner.  The New York Times has reported that a year before the hips were recalled, a Depuy employee wrote an internal memo stating that the Food & Drug Administration had refused to approve the ASR hip because the internal company studies the FDA had reviewed showed an unacceptable failure rate.  Johnson & Johnson has always maintained that, up until the recall of the Depuy ASR hip, they had no reason to believe it was not safe and effective.

    New lawsuits are being filed every day as more failures with the hip occur.  There could be as many as 5,000 failures if current failure rate data is accurate.  A failure generally means that a second hip replacement operation is necessary.          

    If you have had the ASR hip implanted, please contact the firm.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Defective Hip Replacement Developments

The New York Times recently reported that the failure rate of Johnson & Johnson's ASR hip replacements is approaching 33 1/3%. The story is attached. If you or a family member have this hip replacement, it is important that you get legal advice quickly so that valuable rights are not lost. Our office is handling these claims and can give you  no -obligation information as to your rights.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/health/16hip.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Depuy Hip Recall

I was on the Len Tillem show on KGO Radio 810 in San Francisco yesterday talking about the Depuy ASR Hip Recall.  This is a hip replacement product that has been recalled by the manufacturers, Depuy Orthopedics and Johnson & Johnson.  It seems clear that it should have been recalled much earlier because of information of problems given to Depuy.  While there was a delay in acknowledging the problems, tens of thousands of patients received defective hip prostheses.   The failure rate is way too high- officially 12-13%, but in reality perhaps as high as 30%.  While it is in a patient's body this prosthesis can loosen and become displaced causing severe pain and difficulty walking.  Disturbingly, since it is all metal, the components have a tendency to rub against each other, causing microscopic bits of heavy metals to be dispersed into the surrounding tissue and into the bloodstream.  The long-term effects of the presence of these metals in the body is not well-understood, but is definitely worrisome.

If you or a loved one has one of these hip replacement products, call me or another competent lawyer.  Do not sign anything given to you by Depuy/Johnson & Johnson or you may be giving up valuable rights.