DePuy Synthes Proximal Femur Plate Lawsuit Filed Over Early Failure.

According to allegations raised in a recently filed product liability, a DePuy Synthes proximal femur plate failed only a few months after it was implanted, resulting in additional revision surgery.

The complaint (PDF) was filed by Carolyn Rokosz in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa on July 19, indicating that design defects associated with a proximal femur plate manufactured and sold by DePuy Synthes, which was designed to hold together a fractured femur, caused it to fail and re-fracture her femur.

DePuy Synthes and its parent company, Johnson & Johnson, are named as defendants in the complaint.

Rokosz indicates that she underwent a procedure to implant a DePuy Synthes plate after she initially fractured her left femur during a fall in May 2016. However, just two months later, she went to her surgeon due to continued pain in her left leg, and an x-ray revealed that the plate had failed, and her femur had been re-fractured, according to the lawsuit.

Two days later, the leg with the failed plate “gave out” and Rokosz indicates that she suffered another fall, after which the plate was removed and replaced with another femur plate. In September 2016, after another two month period, an x-ray showed that plate had failed as well, and she had to have the second implant removed as well.

“All of the injuries and complications suffered by Ms. Rokosz were caused by the defective design, warnings, construction and unreasonably dangerous character of the DePuy Synthes femur plate in her May 13, 2016,” Rokosz’s lawsuit states. “Had defendants not concealed the known defects, the early failure rate, the known complications and the unreasonable risks associated with the use of the Synthes femur plate, Ms. Rokosz would not have allowed any Synthes Femur plate to have been implanted in her body.”

Rokosz’s lawsuit indicates that she will likely have to undergo future medical testing, invasive exploratory surgeries, treatments, and medical monitoring. It indicates that on top of the damaged femur, she has also suffered metallosis, a form of blood poisoning often caused by metal implants.