Posted on July 2, 2011 by Quzido

As of last August of 2010, DePuy Orthopaedics, a subsidiary of pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, issued a monumental DePuy hip replacement recall of its metal-on-metal devices. Unfortunately, since DePuy officials had no organized means of tracking hip replacement recipients all over the world, the responsibility of informing these patients was left to the orthopedists and surgeons that performed the procedures. Since it is estimated that 93,000 hip replacements were given to patients worldwide, it is expected that there would be numerous lawsuits filed on behalf of these patients. The number of lawsuits is currently only in the hundreds, but slowly gaining in numbers. This clearly indicates that the majority of the thousands of hip replacement recipients around the world are still in the dark with regards to knowing about a recall. Recipients of the ASR device often decide to address the issue by acquiring the help of a lawyer to recover the best lawsuit settlement possible.

There are reasonable explanations for this disparity in the number of recipients versus the number of lawsuits filed to date. Many of the recipients may have just simply relocated without leaving a forwarding address for their physicians. This causes problems for a number of reasons. The first problem encountered involves those recipients not experiencing any symptoms of hip replacement failure or metallosis since they may not be seeking the proper medical care they need. Second, the more time that has lapsed for these patients to have their claim evaluated by a hip replacement lawyer, the less time they will have to file a claim against DePuy.

Sobering statistics have been published against DePuy’s defective hip replacements as early as 2007, which have increased the urgency for recipients to consult with a hip replacement lawyer. Australia and the United Kingdom are two countries that have regulatory artificial joint registries and initially reported that the metal-on-metal devices failed 12 to13 percent of the time after only five years. However, in the last several weeks, more ominous reports have shown that nearly 49 percent of these defective devices fail after only six years. Ultimately, the majority of these patients will need painful corrective procedures that easily could have been prevented had DePuy been more responsible in designing a better product and initiating a recall of its defective hip replacements earlier.

All over the world, there are thousands of patients that still do not know about a DePuy hip replacement recall. Patients that have received hip replacements in the last several years should determine if it was manufactured by DePuy. As soon as this has been established, these recipients need to consult with an experienced attorney handling hip replacement lawsuit cases to get the compensation they deserve.

DePuy Hip Recall Lawyers – The Johnson Law Firm 1-800-HIP-1900

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