Tags
arthritis, Cobalt chrome, Cobalt poisoning, DePuy, DePuy ASR Hip, DePuy ASR™ Hip Resurfacing System, DePuy Hip Recall Litigation, DePuy Lawsuit, Hip Replacement, hip resurfacing, hip revision, Johnson & Johnson, Smith & Nephew
The Walking Wounded
Updated
Monday 26 May 2014
“I want to see Johnson & Johnson in court. I want to see them punished for what they’ve done because I believe they knew well beforehand and didn’t stop putting these products in.” Australian patient
When the world’s largest medical device and diagnostics company discovers one of its top products is deeply flawed and endangering the health of thousands of patients, the decent thing to do would be to withdraw it from the market and help the people affected.
Three years ago Four Corners revealed the shocking health impact on patients in Australia caused by the failure of a so-called revolutionary hip replacement device. Patients told how the prosthetic implant had given them cobalt poisoning, as metal fragments polluted their bodies.
Next on Four Corners reporter Quentin McDermott reveals how healthcare giant, Johnson & Johnson, through its subsidiary DePuy Orthopaedics, deceived doctors and patients using its ASR hip replacement implant. Talking to doctors and technology experts, and analysing a trove of internal company documents unearthed in a major court case in the United States, McDermott shows how Johnson & Johnson/DePuy not only refused to accept evidence the technology was flawed, but attempted to obscure the severe problems it was creating.
The extent of the apparent cover-up is breathtaking. It began when respected surgeons worldwide reported problems with the implant to the company. Instead of listening to their warnings, the company told each doctor they were the only ones having a problem. Isolated and confused by what was happening, the doctors were in effect being told they had caused the malfunction. The company refused to employ a toxicologist to assess the alleged problems. When evidence suggesting the hip implant was doing damage continued to mount, the company ignored it, instead responding by boosting its marketing campaign.
Finally, it took a Vietnam War veteran to expose the company’s behaviour. After his hip replacement went wrong, Bill Kransky took Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy to court in the US. Suffering from cancer, he lived long enough to win his case and a major compensation payout to provide for his family.
In Australia, preparations are under way for the trial of a class action against the company making and selling the implant, on behalf of hundreds of patients whose hip replacements have failed. The revelations in tonight’s program suggest that they have a strong case.
The Walking Wounded, reported by Quentin McDermott and presented by Kerry O’Brien, goes to air on Monday 26th May at 8.30pm on ABC1. It is replayed on Tuesday 27th May at 11.00am and 11.35pm. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 on Saturday at 8.00pm, ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners.
That’s great, but why don’t ABC also look into how Smith & Nephew are STILL doing the above with the BHR, in identical fashion? People are still having these implants fitted & there is speculation that the S&N case could end up far bigger than the J&J one, probably because they’re still fitting them & still denying that there is a problem!!
Did you notice how Toni Nargol stopped short after saying the BHR didn’t fail as early. The cheek of that devil McMinn when he is the creator of this mess. I hope he sees his day in court.
I didn’t see it but yes, I can’t wait to see McMinn have his day in court….I want to look the smug bastard in the eye when he admits what he’s done….
you’re right Dominique, Smith and Nephew could be far bigger than the J&J (which is bad) but they think they are smarter as they are sitting protected under the “pre-market approval” they sleazed on to their BHR. It should have been recalled years ago and it would have saved so many people from such harm. Yes, Earl, I hope he sees his day in court too – they should be sitting 10 years in jail in India too – criminals.
I’m not sure if they got a PMA for the UK, I’m not sure how it all works. I too want to see McMinn in court as well…..maybe he should serve a spell in prison for continuing to perpetuate the lies that there is nothing wrong with the BHR….can he look in his victims’ eyes & tell them there’s nothing wrong with it & it didn’t give them years of pain and metallosis….criminal.
I must be missing something with these recent posts – doesn’t all the peer review literature say that the BHR is well designed and performs very well with a very low revision rate – that’s what all the literature I’ve read on it says. Is the point that’s being made that once McMinn launched his well researched and designed product on the market it was inevitable that market forces and commercial pressures would/could result in the de Puy debacle? If so, that’s a very different point and hardly an outcome that can be put at McMinn’s door – so it seems to me. So to Dominique I ask: who are McMinn’s victims? Is there even one person with a BHR that has been revised due to metallosis bearing in mind that there is always a revision rate for other reasons. Don’t get me wrong – I’m neither defending nor attacking anyone and I have my doubts about the whole large head MoM resurfacing concept and that’s from bitter experience but the assertion that the BHR is failing in the same way as the ASR is just wrong although I’m happy to pointed in the right direction if I’m barking up the wrong tree.
Unfortunately you are incorrect. There are plenty of reports showing the BHR has much higher failure rates than S&N reports. There are a lot of damaged S&N recipients out there, me included , but S&N hides behind prior market approval in the USA and has so far avoided a class action. My blog lists plenty of S&N problems. They may take longer to emerge than DePuy but the problems are equally as bad.
No Andrew, you’re desperately wide of the mark here. I don’t have the time to get into it right now but McMinn is heading a massive cover up. You want to hear of a BHR victim? ME!!! EARL!!!!! I’m 36, 3 months post revision & STILL in pain. They removed a large pseudotumour from the anterior of that device that was caused by metallosis. That’s just for starters – there are many, many people whose lives have been made a misery by that smug bastard & his sodding hip & more to the point – his continued propaganda spreading the lies & cover up over his so called wonder product. The worst thing of this is that he KNOWS he’s covering up a massive storm that is about to break. Barely a hospital in the UK dares to touch it now – how is that a well designed product??
Oh & there are legal firms in the UK who are starting to build cases against S&N. When this storm breaks it will make the DePuy case look a trifle.
Andrew, where are you reading that it performs well? The surgeon that put mine in called me when my metal levels were through the roof and said “it needs to come out asap”! He also told me that he was NOT putting those in females (yet, did not say he was putting them in at all – and the sales will tell you this too) anymore. Smith and Nephew also did not test the product long before they (and it did not pass the first time they tried – and only by a small margin the second) managed to get this on the market. If you look up what a “pre-market approval” is this will shed some light on how they manipulated getting this (NO OTHER HIP PRODUCT HAS THIS PROTECTION ). The metallosis is what the problem is with the BHR (I had MANY pseudotumors caused by cobalt and chromium). Were they put in correctly? Yes, they were. Maybe that is why you think they performed well? The Dupuy made by J & J was actually made defective because of the shape (this is what this same surgeon told me) so J & J recalled it for that reason. I went to a better hospital in Boston where they, nor two other top hospitals, EVER put in the BHR. The surgeon who did my revision told me that he was doing “too many revisions to count” from the hospital where I got the BHR put in – so I know there are MANY bhr victims, but S & N will not give that info out – in fact, they told me that “no one has complained!”
Earl – thanks for your response – do you have a phone number I can contact you on? I’m in Melbourne. Thanks Andrew
Hi Andrew, Andy here, putting my hand up as just one of the victims. I am a BHR, edge loading, with cobalt levels of 809 nmol/L, should be less than 7 and chromium 1361 nmol/L, should be less than 40 – no choice but revision…in fact for me that’s the only reason for revision as the hip gives me no pain (yet). Who knows what my tissue and bone will look like when they go in. I have peripheral neuropathy, had a heart arrhythmia develop, vision changes, fatigue. Like Earl, I can attest this is happening, because it am living it. I was quite angry after the program as were many of my friends and family who texted me, simply because of the way the BHR was portrayed.
The whole story needs to be told and yes, Derek McMinn needs to stop providing the statistics that support his product. What’s the old saying, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics. Spin them any way you like essentially.
Best Andy
Thanks Andy – I haven’t looked at the detail of Earl’s website/blog for some years. I had hitherto thought the position was as set out in my previous post. Also, the phrase ‘Birmingham’ seemed to be used at least in the early years as a generic term describing a MoM resurfacing of any type. Can I give you a call – I think from memory you are also in Melb. I am in Newport. My mobile is 0432 684 184. You can email me at . Happy to give you a call if you give me contact details. Take it easy. Regards Andrew.
The term “Birmingham” is only for Smith and Nephew’s metal on metal device. The surgeon that put mine in actually flew to Birmingham, England to learn how to put them in. I am sure that birmingham is not used for any other companies metal on metal pieces of crap.
ok – thanks everyone for setting me straight.
I think what happened here was that I have not read much literature for a year may be more but back in time the revision rate for the BHR due to metallosis was very low but it has now really ramped up and the problem is becoming clear. Likewise I fear with my Mitch Stryker – which incidentally my own surgeon has in his hip – 5/6 years ago it was with a sense of incredulity that it was thought there could be a problem of this type but not so now I suspect. On the other point, various of my letters and other communications refer generally to my prosthesis as a Birmingham or a Mitch and when I was seeking a second opinion the surgeon asked me to clarify precisely which it was saying that referring to it as a Birmingham, whilst imprecise, was a generic/shorthand way of saying I’ve had a large head MoM resurfacing without being brand/model specific. That surgeon then told me he had been on the board of the TGA and had just recalled the Mitch Stryker modular system the day before. As it transpires I don’t have the Mitch Stryker the subject of the recall, I don’t have drastically elevated ions – Cobalt was 46 nmol/L and Chromium 96 nmol/L – elevated but by no means through the roof – it just hurts too much.
Incidentally, my wife is from Birmingham UK and we are going there in a few weeks. I had made contact with McMinn a while ago to see me [not knowing anything about the blooming failure rates with his BHR] but he said he has no experience of the Mitch or revising metal devices and has suggested I see a John Skinner, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon in London, which I will do whilst in the UK. Anyone know of him?
I trust I didn’t offend anyone with my comments.
Regards
Andrew
Hi Andrew
No offence taken at my end. We are all still learning from each other, with our respective stories and prosthesis and the development of the MoM failures. I think many of us have researched extensively, trying to make sense of it all. When this happens, and you don’t get answers from doctors, you become information hungry. That’s why I find Earl’s Blog so important too – we get current information, along with the fact that we make contact with people we otherwise would never have found, but with whom we share all too common ground.
I emailed you yesterday with my contact details. Happy to chat. As you are in Melbourne, be interested to know who your surgeon is.
Best Andy