Wright Hip Replacement Lawsuit Settled Before Trial

A Major League Baseball umpire has reached a settlement agreement in a product liability lawsuit filed against Wright Medical over a failed hip replacement, just as the case was about to go to trial. 

Details of the Wright hip replacement settlement have not been disclosed, but Hirschbeck’s attorneys were asking for $3 million before the agreement was reached, according to a report by newstimes.com.

Hirscbeck filed the lawsuit against Wright Medical after his ceramic artificial hip shattered in June 2003, about a month after he received the implant. As a result of problems from the Wright hip replacement, Hirschbeck suffered an infection and required at least four more surgeries, leaving him unable to return to his job as a Major League Baseball umpire.

In addition to the lawsuit against Wright Medical, Hirschbeck also sued his doctor, John Keggi, for recommending the artificial hip after it was discovered thar Wright paid tens of thousands of dollars into a foundation the doctor ran and sent Keggi on a trip to the Bahamas. Keggi reached a settlement with Hirschbeck out of court earlier this year.

Last year, Wright Medical agreed to pay $7.9 million to settle government accusations that they paid kickbacks to orthopedic surgeons who pushed their hip and knee implants onto patients. That agreement, which was announced in September 2010, also included a corporate compliance agreement and 12 months of federal monitoring.

In recent months, Wright Medical has faced a growing number of reports involving problems with a different hip replacement, the Wright Profemur, which has been cited as having a higher-than-anticipated revision rate within a few years of surgery. A number of Wright Profemur hip replacement lawsuits have been filed on behalf of individuals who have experienced problems. Some complaints involve situations where the femoral neck of the Wright Profemur implant broke or fractured during normal use, resulting in severe pain and the need for revision surgery to replace the Wright Profemur hip system.