Metal-on-Metal Hip Lawsuit Filed Against Johnson & Johnson and DePuy

A New York woman has filed a metal-on-metal hip replacement lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary, DePuy Orthopaedics, alleging that a DePuy ASR hip implant she received was defective and failed, causing her to suffer painful and debilitating injuries. 

The lawsuit was filed earlier this month by Annie O’Neill, 67, of Gardiner, New York, in federal court in California. The complaint alleges that Johnson & Johnson and DePuy failed to warn patients about the risk of problems with metal-on-metal ASR hip replacements and failed to promptly issue a recall once it became clear that a large number of the implants were failing shortly after surgery.

O’Neill received a DePuy ASR hip in May 2009, but the implant detached from her acetabulum over the following months and caused her severe pain and problems walking. Eventually, the implant began emitting noise from her hip when she walked, which continually grew louder. Between the pain and the noise from the defective implant, it was decided that O’Neill should undergo hip revision surgery on July 26, 2010.

According to the complaint, O’Neill is a nature enthusiast who enjoyed hiking and rock climbing, but even after surgery to fix the DePuy ASR implant problems she continues to have trouble walking.

In August, a month after O’Neill’s hip revision surgery, Johnson & Johnson and DePuy recalled the ASR XL Acetabular Systems, saying that the metal-on-metal hip implant had a 13% failure rate. They also recalled the ASR Hip Resurfacing System, which had a 12% failure rate. About 93,000 of the artificial hip systems were sold prior to the recall.

A growing number of individuals throughout the United States have filed a similar DePuy ASR metal hip lawsuit after they experienced problems from the defective implant. This week, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation is scheduled to meet to determine whether the DePuy ASR hip replacement litigation should be consolidated in federal court for pretrial proceedings.

All of the claims involve similar allegations of design defect, which caused the plaintiffs to incur additional medical expenses, suffer pain and, in some cases, require additional surgery to revise or replace the hip implant. The complaints allege that DePuy failed to adequately test the metal-on-metal hip system and failed to immediately issue a recall when it became apparent that that the DePuy ASR was linked to a high failure rate.