Earl's View » Medicine

Johnson & Johnson – It ALL about the MONEY – NOT Patients…

earlstevens58 — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 19:46:58 +0000

Johnson & Johnson to Offer $2.5 Billion Hip Device Settlement – NYTimes.com.

Johnson & Johnson to Offer $2.5 Billion Hip Device Settlement

By BARRY MEIER

Published: November 19, 2013

Lawyers for Johnson & Johnson and patients injured by a flawed hip implant were expected to introduce a multibillion-dollar plan Tuesday to settle thousands of lawsuits, but it was not clear whether the deal would satisfy enough claimants.

Under the agreement, according to people briefed on the plan, the medical products giant will pay some $2.475 billion in compensation to an estimated 8,000 patients who have been forced to have the all-metal artificial hip removed and replaced with another device.

Separately, the company has agreed to pay all medical costs related to such procedures, expenses that could raise the deal’s cost to Johnson & Johnson to some $3 billion, said those familiar with the proposal, who did not want to be identified.

The typical patient payment for pain and suffering caused by the device will be about $250,000 before legal fees, under the plan. Based on standard agreements, plaintiffs’ lawyers would receive about one-third of the overall payout, or more than $800 million, with those who negotiated the plan emerging as big winners.

Read the full NY Times article here.

Johnson & Johnson Said to Agree to $4 Billion Settlement Over Hip Implants (earlsview.com)
Johnson & Johnson Said to Agree to $4 Billion Settlement Over Hip Implants (nytimes.com)
Johnson & Johnson DePuy hip implant settlement reported (lawprofessors.typepad.com)
Johnson & Johnson Investors Sweat, but the Dow Bounces Back (fool.com)
Johnson and Johnson Agrees to Settlement To Reach as High as $4 Billion to Resolve Patient Lawsuits With Flawed Hip Replacement Devices (ducknetweb.blogspot.com)
Johnson & Johnson Reaches $4 Billion Settlement Over Hip Implants (theatlanticwire.com)
J&J Said to Reach $4 Billion Deal to Settle Hip Lawsuits (bloomberg.com)
Johnson & Johnson to pay $4 billion settlement over metal-on-metal hip implants: Report (cbsnews.com)
How Did This Company Lose Over $6 Billion in 2 Weeks? (fool.com)
Gray and White Law Provides Expert Commentary on $4 Billion Expected Settlement in Johnson & Johnson DePuy ASR LawsuitsWhich Is Higher Than Previously Estimated (prweb.com)

Scott’s Biomet agony – and now relief with it gone…

earlstevens58 — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 07:44:07 +0000

Good Morning Earl,

I have been battling my Biomet Magnum M2A hip since it was implanted some eight years ago.. On August 28, 2013 I had that hip replaced with a ceramic device. The relief has been INCREDIBLE!

During the past eight years I have dealt with pain 24/7 and tried everything imaginable (including more than 40 outpatient pain blocks!) all to no avail. I’ve spent countless hours in doctor’s offices, doing various types of physical therapy, filling out forms, waiting for prescriptions to be filled…… you name it. I’ve lost my career, and have not earned one dime of income during this time. Most of my life was spent sitting atop the bed with my leg elevated. That-plus pain medication-was my only way of obtaining any relief. Even then the pain never stopped.

I want to describe this pain in detail. Any number of sensations appeared in various order with no real rhyme or reason. The worst was the sensation of my femur throbbing-just like a toothache inside of the bone. I also experienced stinging and burning in my thigh and buttock on that side. Often, my thigh would feel three times the normal size-as if were going to burst like a water balloon. I had pain behind my knee, pain in my calf muscle, pain in my shin…. even my toes! (Every single symptom is gone and yet only the articulation was revised; my surgeon found the implant in my femur to be solid and therefore he did not replace that part. I still have some surgical pain which is normal at this stage.)

In recovery, my surgeon was beaming as he explained what he found during my replacement surgery: The Biomet hip was covered with scar tissue (and a lot of fluid) so thick that he described it as a “rind” while cutting his way through. The scar tissue was so extensive that he repeatedly lengthened my incision for additional access. Apparently this scar tissue had entrapped many nerves, thus causing the misery I had endured for so long. Most importantly: this scar tissue and accompanying fluid did not appear on any x-ray, bone scan, MRI, CAT scan, etc. I was evaluated by four different Orthopedic surgeons over the years, yet the results were always the same: My implant was perfectly aligned, there was no apparent loosening, no cysts, no infection, etc. Obviously no surgeon would commit to operating on a patient who had no apparent problems. Finally I found a surgeon who listened carefully and took a more aggressive course of action. Thanks to a simple hip aspiration, within a few weeks I was on my way to an end of eight painful years. I would be happy to share additional details with anyone else that might benefit from my experience.

Regards

Scott

Time: September 26, 2013 at 12:38 am

Better Quality of Life After a Hip Replacement Surgery (biometlawyer.wordpress.com)
Biomet Hip Lawsuits News: Number of Cases Increases in Federal Courts, Reports Rottenstein Law Group LLP (businesslawdaily.net)
Biomet Hip Lawsuits News: Judge Denies Biomet Motion to Dismiss Lawsuit, Reports Rottenstein Law Group LLP (businesslawdaily.net)
Biomet Hip Lawsuits Update: Almost 600 Lawsuits Pending in Federal Court, Reports Rottenstein Law Group LLP (businesslawdaily.net)

Filed under: Biomet, Biomet Hip Lawsuit, Biomet Hip Replacement, Biomet Magnum Hip, Cobalt chrome, Cobalt Poisoning, Hip Replacement, Hip Revisions, Metal on metal hip, Total Hip Replacement Tagged: Doctor's office, Earl, femur, Health, Medicine, pain, Pain management, Physical therapy

Frans story – DePuy ASR and then Blood Cancer

earlstevens58 — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 00:54:22 +0000

I had a Depuy Pinnacle (MOM) total hip replacement in Dec. 2007 due to osteoarthritis at the age of 56. I was told that metal on metal was the preferred implant since I was young, thin and fit. In fact, this remarkable implant might even last my lifetime!

Eighteen months later, I was diagnosed with level one chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

I had every test imaginable regarding the leukemia and there were chromosomal abnormalities or deletions; however, never having a baseline study, it would be a stretch to say that there were changes.

A friend alerted me to the dangers of cobalt and chromium poisoning in 2012 and I requested the blood test, yet my surgeon did not encourage it as I was not symptomatic with hip issues. Both minerals tested were elevated but I was told they were not dangerously high at the time.

One year later, I requested to have the mineral blood test again so the results would be available for my annual appointment. Levels had risen significantly and I was having groin pain, hip pain and stability issues.

The orignial surgeon suggested a total hip resurfacing at some point, but certainly immediate surgery was not emphasized. I went for another opinion and that surgeon made room in his surgery schedule that week so that the Depuy Pinnancle could be removed.

My question is this: Are there others with metal on metal hip implants who then were diagnosed with blood cancer? I find it more than coincidental, yet when I ask medical professionals they state that there are no definitive studies linking the two.

DePuy Defective Hip Implant Claims | eLocal (elocallawyers.com)
Hip Replacement Lawsuits (hipreplacementlawsuits.wordpress.com)
DePuy ASR Hip Implant Lawsuit Filed by Wright & Schulte on Behalf of Texas Man Who Alleges His Serious Hip Injuries Were Caused by Defective Design of ASR Hip Implant (prweb.com)
Hip Replacement Recall (ehipreplacementrecall.wordpress.com)
Experts Advise Patients with MoM Hips to Undergo Blood Tests (hothealthnews.wordpress.com)
Fighting Rare Blood Cancers (23andme.com)
Lawmakers Mull over Actions for Hip Implant Safety (hipimplantlawyer.wordpress.com)
The New Design of DePuy ASR Hip (depuyrecall.typepad.com)
DePuy Hip Replacement Failure Rate (depuyrecall.typepad.com)
US Drug Watchdog Now Urges All DePuy Pinnacle Hip Implant Recipients To Call Them About A Blood Test To See If This Metal Hip Implant Has Failed-Time Is Of The Essence (prweb.com)

Filed under: Cobalt chrome, Cobalt Poisoning, Cobaltism, DePuy ASR Hip, DePuy Hip Litigation, Hip Replacement, Hip Revisions, Johnson & Johnson, Metal on metal hip, Total Hip Replacement Tagged: baseline study, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, DePuy, Food and Drug Administration, groin pain, Health, Hematological malignancy, Hip implants, Hip Replacement, Johnson, Medicine, osteoarthritis, pinnancle, total hip resurfacing

Data show hip replacement revision rate low, though higher with metal-on-metal – Winnipeg Free Press

earlstevens58 — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 22:01:33 +0000

Data show hip replacement revision rate low, though higher with metal-on-metal – Winnipeg Free Press.

Data show hip replacement revision rate low, though higher with metal-on-metal

By: Helen Branswell, The Canadian Press

Posted: 07/18/2013 2:51 PM |

TORONTO – New Canadian data suggest that people who have a type of metal-on-metal hip replacement are more likely to need a revision within five years, but even then, the rate of revisions is low.

The data show that people who had large-diameter modular metal-on-metal implants had a 5.9 per cent chance of needing to have the implant replaced within five years, compared to a rate of 2.7 per cent among people who received the more common metal-on-plastic implant.

The data, released by the Canadian Institutes for Health Information, show that nearly three out of every four hip replacements logged into the Canadian joint replacement registry were metal-on-plastic units.

Metal-on-metal hip replacements made up only nine per cent of the procedures recorded in the registry.

Metal-on-metal units were introduced with great optimism a few years ago; the thinking was the replacement hips would be more durable and better for younger patients than the metal-on-plastic type.

But data from a number of countries have shown that hasn’t been the case for a small subset of people who received the units.

Canadian orthopedic surgeons took a more conservative approach to the metal-on-metal implants and it turned out to be the way to go, says Dr. Michael Dunbar, an orthopedic surgeon from Halifax and co-chair of the joint replacement registry.

“It was the right side of the street to be on, for sure,” Dunbar says.

“It was the fact of the matter that in the United States in the late 2000s almost 45 per cent of every male in the country (who got a hip replacement) got metal-on-metal. So this is why it’s such a big issue in the United States.”

Dunbar says the differences between the U.S. and Canadian situations underscore why it’s important to gather information on joint replacements. Currently the joint replacement registry is a voluntary one, and only captures a portion of the procedures done in the country.

Two provinces — British Columbia and Ontario — are moving to make it mandatory for these procedures to be recorded in the registry. But Dunbar wishes others would follow suit.

“We have a voluntary system and until recently we’ve been down around 50 per cent. We think that all implants should be registered because this is important. We’re spending the nation’s treasure on this stuff. This is a top health-care priority in Canada,” Dunbar says.

“We want to make sure we can deliver the very best product to the patients in our country. And we want to make sure that the money that we’re spending … is best spent for the most appropriate implant for the most appropriate patient.”

The report is based on nearly 60,000 hip replacements done across Canada between 2003 and 2011. Data from Quebec were not included.

Data show hip replacement revision rate low, though higher with metal-on-metal (globalnews.ca)
Metal on Metal Long Term Risks Confirmed (earlsview.com)
Products Included in the Ceramic Hip Replacement Recall (arthritis.answers.com)
Risks, Benefits and Recovery From Birmingham Hip Procedures (arthritis.answers.com)
Metal-on-metal hip implants more likely to need replacement (cbc.ca)
Risks and Rewards of Cemented Hip Replacements (arthritis.answers.com)
Hip Resurfacing an Alternative to Hip Replacement (hothealthnews.wordpress.com)
Understanding Hip Revision Surgery: A Medical Overview (orthopedics.answers.com)

Filed under: Cobalt chrome, Cobalt Poisoning, Cobaltism, Hip Replacement, Hip Revisions, Metal on metal hip, Total Hip Replacement Tagged: arthritis, Business, Cobalt chrome, Cobalt poisoning, DePuy, Health, hip, Hip Replacement, hip resurfacing, joint replacement, Medicine, science, Smith & Nephew, surgery, Technology, UNited States, Winnipeg Free Press

Hanna’s Story – another Smith & Nephew BHR tale of disaster

earlstevens58 — Sat, 04 May 2013 01:12:42 +0000

My name is Hanna Viner, I am 61 years old and I live in Sydney, Australia. I had recently a left hip revision surgery from MoM BHR to ceramic THR. After subscribing to your blog and reading your very interesting articles and stories I have decided to share my experience with you. I have bilateral artificial hips. Left is ceramic THR, MoM BHR on the right side.

In October 2000 I had my first right hip MoM BHR put in due to severe osteoarthritis and 3 months after had developed a limp in the left leg and pain in the left hip. My surgeon, who was trained in BHR 6 months before my first operation, had gone to Birmingham to learn how to use Derek McMinn‘s BHR prosthesis and I was one of the first patient to receive this BHR prosthesis in Australia. Anyhow this operation was successful and help me enormously with the pain, which I had suffered for at least 3 years, I was 48 years old when I had my first operation.

Two years later in September 2002 I went and had left hip BHR inserted and this operation was not as successful as the first one. My surgeon has told me that the damage in the left acetabulum and femur head was not as great as in the right one therefore they have to insert a bigger socket and force it into the acetabulum, I think they maybe did not have the right size of the socket for damage I had there. The future CT Scan had showed an old healed fracture in my pelvis next to the left prosthesis. Anyhow i was happy to have the new hip resurfacing in and did not pay much attention to the details then.

From the beginning the left prosthesis was squeaking and made all sorts of noises while I was moving or bending, but I had a little pain and considered that ok. When I attended numerous check up visits with my surgeon I have told him about the problems but he dismissed them as normal. Over the years the noises and occasional pain were more disturbing and in 2007 my X-ray showed the lucency next to the left BHR, which again my doctor has dismissed and said that there is nothing to worry about.

So life was going on and I started having gait problem and developed excessive pronation in my feet, more severe on the left foot. I also developed bunions on both feet and I had to do something because due mainly to left foot drop I was falling while walking even on leveled ground and my feet were killing me, being very painful while walking or standing for prolonged periods.

After numerous fallings I have researched the cause for it and decided to go and see podiatrist, which of course diagnosed me with severe pronation of my feet, especially the left one. I was given orthotics and felt better immediately. I also stared to notice that the left leg was kind of weaker than the right one, but I did not pay too much attention and was living my life as normal.

Mean while this leg problems had affected my thoracic skoliosis and my shoulders were very uneven, more than ever before, the right one was now much lower than the left one. So I started paying attention to my posture. I work in the office and had to be aware the way I was sitting and using computer. My right knee developed Bakers cyst and was and is quite painful especially when I walk up the hill or up and down the stairs.

I also started being very fatigued and developed some chronic aches and pains all over my body, I had digestive problems, loss of vision especially at night and could not hear so well with my left ear. I also have done a comprehensive stool analysis test learning from it that i had some bacterias, amoebas and parasites, my immune system was already compromised and i did not know why. I was a healthy eater, non smoker and non drinker, I use to do lots of sport activities and i was very miserable, irritable and unhappy, thinking that all of this is due to menopause.

In 2009 I had an Idiopathic hemorrage in the back of my left eye,which disappeared after 4 months. My blood pressure was playing up, hot flushes and night sweets were there even I had finished menopause few years before (by the way that period of my life was a miserable one too) and I felt overall very sick. I started Chinese herbs and acupuncture treatment which somehow helped because it made my body stronger but many of my symptoms had never disappear.

Than in June 2012 I went to see my orthopedic surgeon for a check up, which was 5.5 years overdue, i should attend this check up 4 years after my las check up, it was 1.5 years overdue due to some family commitments in Poland, had to look after my elderly mother for 15 months there.

In winter 2011 in Poland I already realize that my left leg is getting weaker and weaker as I was not able to do long walks on the snow the way I was able to do it in winter 2010, but did not worry too much about it blaming the old age, I also developed thyroid problems, my TSH was climbing up and overall I looked terrible, I was swollen especially my face at the chin and neck and my hands and feet and started putting lots of weight.

When I came back to Australia I went and had all necessary blood tests including thyroid tests and tests showed a Hashimoto disease, all thyroid tests were at the normal range, but my thyroid antibodies were elevated to 208IU/mL and my cholesterol was slightly elevated and some of the liver functions as ALT GGT and ALP were elevated. This started to worry me a bit. I did hip X-rays and went for a check up. I have already read the description written by radiologist, which showed that I have some overgrowth on the femur near the left prosthesis. I had showed that o my surgeon and he decided that we need to investigate this further, he had send me for a CT scan and a nuclear bone scan and I had also requested the metal ions blood test.

We did all of that and, o boy, I had a big pseudo tumor next to my left hip, bone and surrounding tissues eaten away by metal debris and metal ions in thousands in my blood, I had no option but to have surgery ASAP so we have scheduled this surgery for hip revision for 25 October 2012. I was speechless and angry and I had no option but to go for this operation.

The operation was successfull but it was done at the lasy moment as the damage to my bone and surrounded tissue was so extensive that if I would left it unattended for a bit longer I wouldn’t have any hip left there.

My surgeon had to remove about a litter of fluid with metal debris and repair all surrounded tissue damage. I was given THR made out of ceramic with ceramic liner to last longer and with titanium stem, also he did a bone graft from my own bone scraps from the femur onto acetabulum and fix the socket there with 2 titanium screws. I was doing pretty ok after the op and after 5 days in hospital I went to rehab hospital for 2 weeks for further rehabilitation ( isometric exercises in the morning and hydrotherapy in the afternoon), this was a great help. When I got back home I have continued hydrotherapy every day of the week and it felt great. It has been over 5 months now after the operation, I do continue hydrotherapy attending sessions at least twice a week.

I went back to work 2.5 months after the operation and I am taking systemic enzymes which are helping enormously with my scar tissue and swelling, they are great, I also detox with chlorella and am taking lots of supplements to keep me going, but I am still tired and the left leg is not fully healed yet, still getting a bit painful if I will overuse it. But the range of movement is great.

I have been back to see my surgeon with new xrays on 8/3/2013, the bone has healed terrifically well and my metal ions are substantially down: chromium from 1200 nmol/l to 574 nmol/l and cobalt from 1860 to 68, still high but much, much better. During this check up I have requested a removal of my right BHR prosthesis and my surgeon was surprised by my decision asking me – why do you want to remove a perfectly good device, I had answered that this is a ticking bomb an it could be blowing up at any rime, he answered yes potentially it can. We had scheduled another revision surgery for 26/6/13. Since then I had enough time to think about it and considering the fact that my left leg is still quite weak I have realized that I may not be well enough to perform the second revision so soon, besides my lower back is playing up since the last operation which is quite normal. I have requested an MRI scan for hips and lower back and measurement of metal ions in blood every three months and if all will be good and metal ions will gradually come down (I know it is a long process, sometimes up to 2 years) than I won’t rush to have another revision surgery. So this is my story.

Dear Earl, what do you think about my decision, do you think I have to do some other checking ups in regards to my problem. I will be glad to sue Smith and Nephew for producing such a horrible device, I have made enquiries in Australia and in one law firm in America but they refused to help me because there is not class action against S&N. So I will wait until many people will come forward and do the same as I want to do. If you know about any possible law suit against Smith and Nephew please let me know.

Looking forward to hear from you soon

Kind regards

Hanna Viner

Hip Resurfacing Procedures: A Viable Alternative to Hip Replacements (orthopedics.answers.com)
Study: Metal Hip Pain and Tissue Damage – Stryker Rejuvenate Hip Implant (earlsview.com)
Walking Better: Rehab After Hip Joint Prosthesis Surgery (orthopedics.answers.com)
Hip Hip Hooray! – Austin, TX (travelpod.com)
Surgeon Says Recalled Stryker Metal Hip Implant May Fail Half the Time (earlsview.com)
Mike’s Stryker problems ruin his life (earlsview.com)
Introducing Hip Resurfacing: A Minimally-Invasive Alternative to Hip Replacements (prweb.com)
Am I Too Old? Too Young for a Hip Replacement? (stpaulhip.wordpress.com)

Filed under: Cobalt chrome, Cobalt Poisoning, Cobaltism, Hip Replacement, Hip Revisions, Metal on metal hip, Total Hip Replacement Tagged: Acetabulum, artificial hips, Australia, BHR, Derek McMinn, Health, hip, Hip Replacement, hip resurfacing, hip revision, Medicine, metal, surgery, Sydney

Stuart Cain – Just Another One of ‘Those Days’!

earlstevens58 — Wed, 01 May 2013 23:44:53 +0000

Just Another One of ‘Those Days’!

My apologies for not getting back to anyone I owe a reply to, please feel free to remind me, the last couple of weeks have consisted of doctors, radiology, blood tests, pain and no sleep, so I have been very slack. I have been watching with keen interest what has been going on and sincerely hope that Paige is getting the assistance and recognition that she deserves! As we all do from time to time, I have taken a step back so that I could try to get my body together, unfortunately I haven’t won that one yet!!

I am sure that many of you will relate to the following scenario, but I just wanted to write about it as I am still adding it to my list of ‘firsts’ since my “ASR experience” began. In the last 3 months I have experienced more pain and decline in my health then I have for the last 6 years, and all this after I had supposedly undergone the ‘this will finally sort you out surgeries’. I am in no way being critical of my surgeon here, he has worked tirelessly in finding answers to the many complications I have faced and I retain complete faith in him. I have a fracture in my right femur (ASR Hip side) that has now been present for 18 months, despite the plate and 9 screws holding my femur together, it has decided to appear on x-ray at least to be breaking down completely, I can certainly back that up in pain and inability to weight bear! When presented with this evidence and the appearance on Bone Scans of fractures bilaterally (left and right) in both my feet, my left shoulder and also potentially in my lumbar spine, my surgeon thought it was time to seek opinion from further experts as to why my femur is degenerating and why these new fractures might be coming from. Against the background of Cobalt/Chromium toxicity and multiple hip revisions (3), my surgeon decided we needed to look at things from a ‘biological level’ and referred me to a colleague who is an Endocrinologist and experienced researcher.

This was the start of one of ‘those days’! My wife and I, after waiting the usual couple of months to get in to see this doctor (and I appreciate that we got in quickly for those of you who have had to wait much longer for medical review), entered the waiting room with a great deal of trepidation. We were called, introduced to the doctor and escorted to the consulting room. After being seated the following statement was made: “I can see you are in pain, but I see a very depressed man sitting in front of me, are you talking to someone about this”. Then turning to my wife: “I can see you are depressed too, you should be talking to someone about this”. So it began. This was our first interaction with this doctor ever, to say we were taken aback was an understatement. We had gone there seeking answers to why my health/body was deteriorating so quickly and as my wife says “I am watching my husband deteriorate in front of my eyes”, this was not what we had expected to be hearing.

We were then given a lecture about ‘our need’ to be getting psychological/psychiatric help, and that Anti-depressants mightn’t be a bad idea. It was then pointed out to me that I was ‘obese’ and that I needed to address this. I had let her go on the first part about our Mental Health thinking that she was trying to help, however I now was starting to see red as we hadn’t so much as mentioned why we there in the first place which was to try to find some answers as to why my bones are breaking and the one that is really broken isn’t healing. The ‘fresh set of eyes’ that was to review my case was now just irritating me! I was then advised that I should stop being lazy and just go to Weight Watchers so that I could do something about my Obesity! If I wasn’t depressed when I walked in the door I was now!! I was also starting to get that burning feeling of anger and resentment that I know so many of you have experienced through your dealings with medical professionals over your journeys.

We finally actually started talking about ‘how it was that I came to be in this situation’, at this point I was almost relieved to be talking about bloody hip replacements!! However I naively expected that she may have read some of the 20 odd pages of notes that my surgeon sent with my referral and referred to my Johnson and Johnson/DePuy implant merely as an “ASR”. She stopped me immediately and said, “what is an ASR?” We should have stood up and left, but stupidly we stayed on, and with much reminding me that she wasn’t an ‘Orthopod’ and not really interested in the surgical side of things, we eventually got up to what medications I was taking. Earlier in the discussion her thoughts had varied between me being on ‘too much’ pain relief, to ‘that is probably nowhere near enough’, so now we were discussing the merits of me visiting a ‘pain clinic’, but even she then admitted that they probably wouldn’t be able to help as they wouldn’t understand or know how to treat this kind of ‘experience’ or pain process. I was also asked to explain ‘why I was taking these medications’, when I replied that they had been prescribed and that I was merely following Doctor’s instructions, I was told that I should have taken control of this and ‘known better’. Now I am a mere Nurse, I know we are all probably far more knowledgeable about our conditions than most of the doctors we speak to, but even I have to stop short of prescribing and planning my own medication routine! I feel sorry for those of you out there with no formal medical education, I wonder what she would have said to you?

Continuing in the medication, I mentioned that I take a number of natural medicines (Fish/Krill Oil, Rose Hip Extract, Glucosamine, Chondroitin, Boron etc), I was asked how much I spend on these a month? I replied about $300. I was then told I would be far better off spending that on Weight Watchers for all the good it was doing me! After completing the medication review, we finally pulled out some of the scans and x-rays I had brought along for a casual glance. When she noticed the difference of over 10 cms (approx. 3 inches) in my femur fracture in roughly a month, she thought that I had got the dates wrong as this wasn’t possible. Adding the x-rays of my fractures in both feet, I was then asked if I had been in a car accident? I pointed out that no, I hadn’t, and then she said that I must have had a fall. When this was not also true, the gravity of what she was looking at must have finally sunk in as she offered my wife a tissue (Karrin wanted to belt her over the head with the box I found out later)!

The next part of the appointment was almost ‘humane’ as she empathised with us that this was indeed a truly ‘unique set of circumstances’ in her experience. I was told that I should be in a wheelchair as ‘what am I trying to prove by walking around in pain’, I did point out that I had actually been asked to try to walk by my surgeon. This was followed up by more contradictory comments about my ‘pain threshold’ and we were nearing the end of our time together!

The things I was to take away from the appointment was that even though I had gone there looking for answers, I should realise I probably won’t get any, I should start at Weight Watchers as soon as possible ‘as it is plain that you are obese’, I needed to see a Psychologist at least ‘to help me cope’, I should stop trying to be a hero by trying to walk, my wife was also to seek Mental Health guidance as I was obviously putting her ‘through a lot’ and I should learn to ‘get over my anger with Johnson and Johnson’ as that isn’t going to help me get any better (needless to say at this point in time I firmly believed that no-one else apart from my family and I were going to help me ‘get better’)!! We are to return in 6 weeks’ time when she will have done ‘some looking into all this’, spoken to the many doctors who have treated me over the journey (all of which she seemed to know very well according to her), reviewed all of my blood tests, x-rays, scans etc. and she will have a report for us.

Needless to say I am not holding my breath, I am more determined than ever that we all have to look after ourselves as even ‘the experts’ seem to treat us all as either a: ‘broken puzzle’, ‘a novelty’ or just a ‘pain in their arse’!! I wanted to talk about this appointment as I have spoken to so many people who have had shocking experiences with Doctors and other health professionals that I just wanted to re-assure you that you weren’t on your own. I also think that this is also a very good therapy for my ‘depression’, as it allows me to vent, express and share, things which unfortunately most poor souls who suffer from depression rarely get to do and please don’t think I am in any way diminishing the terrible impact that depression has on many of our lives as we go through this horrible experience called Metal-on-Metal. Indeed I encourage any of you who are currently, have previously or are not quite sure if depression is in your life, to please reach out and talk to someone about it as I believe we are all going through enough torture without adding that type of torture to the mix. As this doctor finally said to us, “if I was in your shoes, I would probably be depressed”, not much relief at the time, but after what she had just put us through it was almost a sense of vindication.

I wish all of you the best of health at this time, I am getting away with my wife for a short break where we can’t be disturbed and just have a nice waterway to watch and can do a bit of fishing. I hope that no matter whether you are battling Johnson and Johnson/DePuy, Smith and Nephew, another manufacturer or just the failings of your own health, that you are supported and loved by those around you, because I know that without this blessing I wouldn’t be here. I keep hoping that it can’t get any worse, but sadly I don’t think I have hit bottom yet, I just need to be able to hope. To Earl, Brooks, Howard, Meg, the 2 Connies, Belinda, Mary, Paige, Morgan and all of the other wonderful people I have had the pleasure of meeting here, I hope your days are reasonably comfortable, you are ‘getting better’ and for all of us that there is some justice just around the corner!

Take Care

Stu Cain

$8.5 Million Verdict against Johnson & Johnson for DePuy Hip Replacement (nylawblog.com)
VICTORY FOR MoM Sufferer – Johnson & – Johnson Ordered to Pay $8.3 Million in Hip Implant Case – NYTimes.com (earlsview.com)
Five Common Causes of Hip Pain in Women (everydayhealth.com)
Hip Pain: What Do Your Symptoms Mean? (everydayhealth.com)
Stuart Cain Reports – A Warning for all MOM Patients – It is NEVER over, and your health is never, ever going to be the same! (earlsview.com)
Weight Watchers (everydayhealth.com)
Jury rules in Merck’s favor in Fosamax trial (nypersonalinjurylawrecord.com)
Mesh scandal: Lawyer on why £7m compensation case will not be the last (dailyrecord.co.uk)
Fosamax Users Experience Femur Fractures (hothealthnews.wordpress.com)

Study: Metal Hip Pain and Tissue Damage – Stryker Rejuvenate Hip Implant

earlstevens58 — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 22:39:08 +0000

Study: Metal Hip Pain and Tissue Damage – Stryker Rejuvenate Hip Implant.

Study: Metal Hip Pain and Tissue Damage

The annual meeting of the 2013 American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) in Chicago has just concluded and doctors delivered a mixed report on metal-on-metal hip replacements.

In a study presented from New York State’s Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), researchers found unexplained pain in metal-on-metal (MoM) hip implant patients is more likely due to tissue damage surrounding the prosthesis rather than wear of the implant.

Hip Replacement

HSS is ranked nationally No. 1 in orthopedics by U.S. News & World Report and researchers wanted to know what caused the increasing number of unexplained pain complaints that eventually lead to hip revision. Among the 9,000 hip implant procedures done by HSS annually, 10% are revisions.

Researchers compared 50 patients who had unexplained pain to a control group of 48 patients who came to HSS with infection, fracture misalignment or loosening of the hip. They measured adverse tissue reaction to metal ions and conducted a wear analysis on removed implants.

Among the group with unexplained pain, 60% had moderate to high rate of tissue reaction and 12% had a buildup of metal ions in soft tissues. The age, sex, body mass, size and length of the implant did not seem to explain pain and patients in both groups had similar wear on the implants. Some patients had a lot of tissue damage, but that was not related to wear, suggesting other factors are causing the damage.

When metal hips were introduced, the industry thought MoM hips were a positive innovation in their ability to remain well-lubricated which minimizes wear, but the thousands of lawsuits filed by injured patients tell another story.

Metal-on-metal hip implants have unique risks. In a MoM hip, the ball and socket is made of metal, usually chromium and cobalt. The metal components can come in contact during walking or running which can release metal particles around the implant, the tissue and surrounding muscles. The scientific community believes the metal ions causes damage that is irreversible and can lead to an early revision of the hip implant.

The suggestion is for doctors to closely follow hip implant patients with unexplained pain before there is significant tissue damage.

AAOS members also sang the praises of a total hip replacement (THR) concluding itincreases the life span and reduces the risk of heart failure, depression and diabetes among the 43,000 Medicare patients with osteoarthritis that were studied.

The study was undertaken to determine the cost-effectiveness of THR treatment seven years after implant but the findings reveal that hip recipients cost Medicare $6,000 more than non-THR patients.

Article Source: http://www.strykerimplantrecall.com/2013/04/04/study-metal-hip-pain-and-tissue-damage/

Iowa Resident Brings Suit Against Stryker For Damages Caused By Recalled Hip Implant – News Press Release | PharmiWeb.com (earlsview.com)
Stryker Rejuvenate Hip Recall Lawsuit News: Updated Information for Stryker Hip Implant Recall Lawsuits In State & Federal Courts, Provided By Alonso Krangle LLP (prweb.com)
Stryker Revises Estimates Upwards As To Expenses Related To Defective Rejuvenate & ABG II Hips (prweb.com)
Signs Your Hip Implants Are Hurting You (earlsview.com)
Smith & Nephew Failure Warning for Birmingham Hip Implant (earlsview.com)
Hip implant patients with unexplained pain likely to have tissue damage (medicalxpress.com)
Hip implant patients with unexplained pain likely to have tissue damage (eurekalert.org)
US Drug Watchdog Now Urges All Metal Hip Implant Recipients Who Have Had Revision Surgeries To Call Them For The Names of Attorneys To Help Them Get Compensated (prweb.com)
Safety Communications FDA Safety Communication: Metal-on-Metal Hip Implants (earlsview.com)

Filed under: Cobalt chrome, Cobalt Poisoning, Cobaltism, Hip Replacement, Hip Revisions, Johnson & Johnson, Metal on metal hip, Stryker, Stryker ABGII Modular Femoral Stem, Stryker Hip Implant Recall, Stryker profits, Stryker rejuvenate hip, Stryker Trident Hip Recall, Stryker Trident Hip Replacement System, Total Hip Replacement Tagged: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, Chicago, Health, Hip implants, Hip Replacement, hip replacements, hip revision, Hospital for Special Surgery, Medicine, metal, metal ions, Patient, U.S. News & World Report, UNited States

J&J pressured to settle Australian hip lawsuits – FierceMedicalDevices

earlstevens58 — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 23:40:32 +0000

J&J pressured to settle Australian hip lawsuits – FierceMedicalDevices.

J&J pressured to settle Australian hip lawsuits

March 26, 2013 | By Mark Hollmer

Johnson & Johnson’s ($JNJ) $8.3 million defeat in a U.S. jury trial over its ASR metal-on-metal hip implant could force it to settle a massive class action lawsuit in Australia over the same product.

Lawyers representing 4,500 ASR implant patients in Australia may ask the country’s Federal Court to order Johnson & Johnson (and executives from DePuy division that made the implants) to focus on negotiating a settlement in the wake of the company’s defeat at the hands of a Los Angeles jury earlier this month, the Sydney Morning Herald reports this week. The negotiations would take place through a week of mediation in May.

Beyond the outcome itself, some of the testimony during the Los Angeles trial has also given their case a shot in the arm: J&J executives appear to have been told they didn’t act to address faulty ASR implants even though they knew about the product’s mounting safety and mechanical problems.

Presumably, J&J is prepared. The company pursued a global recall of the ASR implant system in 2010, and has boosted the amount of money set aside to handle rising legal costs stemming from lawsuits and settlement cases around the world. To date, J&J has already spent nearly $1 billion on ASR-related settlements.

More than 10,000 ASR-related lawsuits against J&J remain, and, since the Los Angeles case, a New Jersey jury ordered it to pay $11.2 million to an ASR plaintiff whose device failed and then faced a number of repeat surgeries. The lawsuits allege J&J designed a defective product and didn’t pursue proper safety and regulatory practices, but J&J denies any wrongdoing and has countered that patients complaining of ASR-related health problems endured unrelated issues. Many plaintiffs claim the implant damaged tissue around it and released metal fragments into their bodies.

Meanwhile, as the Sydney Morning Herald reports, the ASR hip implant had a 44% failure rate in Australia within seven years, according to Australian registry data cited by the story.

- here’s the story

DePuy ASR Hip Recipient Feared for His Life before Revision Surgery (earlsview.com)
When Doctors Keep Quiet about Dangerous Hip Devices (earlsview.com)
Pressure rises for settlement of hip implants case (theage.com.au)
Compensation hopes for faulty hip implant victims (smh.com.au)
VICTORY FOR MoM Sufferer – Johnson & – Johnson Ordered to Pay $8.3 Million in Hip Implant Case – NYTimes.com (earlsview.com)
Common Problems Associated With Titanium Hip Replacements (orthopedics.answers.com)
Learning the Truth About Sulzer Orthopedics (arthritis.answers.com)
HELLO – Earth to Major Tom – What Planet is this guy on? At trial of Johnson & Johnson recalled hip implants, doctor testifies device wasn’t defective | NJ.com (earlsview.com)
Signs Your Hip Implants Are Hurting You (earlsview.com)
Smith & Nephew Failure Warning for Birmingham Hip Implant (earlsview.com)

Filed under: Cobalt chrome, Cobalt Poisoning, Cobaltism, DePuy ASR Hip, DePuy Hip Litigation, Hip Replacement, Hip Revisions, Johnson & Johnson, Metal on metal hip, Total Hip Replacement Tagged: Australia, Cobalt chrome, Cobalt poisoning, DePuy, DePuy ASR Hip, DePuy Hip Recall Litigation, DePuy Lawsuit, Food & Drug Administration, Hip Replacement, Johnson, Johnson & Johnson, lawsuit, Los Angeles, Medicine, Metal on metal hip, metal-on-metal hips, metallosis, Sydney Morning Herald

Profile of an FDA critic: Q&A with patient safety advocate Dr. Robert Hauser | MassDevice

earlstevens58 — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 02:04:02 +0000

Profile of an FDA critic: Q&A with patient safety advocate Dr. Robert Hauser | MassDevice.

March 11, 2013 by Arezu Sarvestani FiDA hightlight

Veteran cardiologist and patient safety advocate Dr. Robert Hauser tells MassDevice.com about his new vision for healthcare surveillance, his long struggle to spur change at the FDA and what FDA regulators can learn from aviation regulation.

Veteran cardiologist Dr. Robert Hauser is eager for change, even if he has to go straight to Capitol Hill himself to make it happen.

The patient safety advocate and vocal critic of the FDA announced at this year’s American College of Cardiology conference that he’s working on a proposal to fundamentally change the way federal regulators monitor medical devices and drugs once they hit the market.

He’s looking to “recruit a couple people and go to Congress” with a proposal that would separate the FDA’s approval functions from its surveillance functions, he told MassDevice.com here in San Francisco yesterday.

In an in-depth interview, Hauser, a prominent cardiologist from the Minneapolis Heart Institute, told us about his drive to protect patients from faulty devices, his disappointment with the FDA and what healthcare regulators can learn from their counterparts in aviation.

Inspiration and disappointment

Hauser’s passion for healthcare safety was inspired in part by an experience he had in the mid-1970s, when a patient died when the pacemaker that he was dependent on short-circuited, he told us.

“A 40-year-old guy dropped dead on the doorstep of his home. His wife found him,” Hauser said sadly. “We then found out that it was due to moisture getting into the electronics through a defect in the circuit that the manufacturer knew about.”

At the time the FDA was considering what would become the Medical Device Amendments of 1976, which put into place the 3-tiered class system by which FDA assesses the potential risk and regulatory pathway for medical devices. Hauser “totally supported the amendment” at the time, he said, in part because of his experiences with faulty pacemakers. But in the intervening 40 years he’s grown pessimistic about the FDA’s ability to satisfy its duty to protect U.S. patients from potentially dangerous products.

He’s made it something of a life goal to promote changes at the FDA, but is growing increasingly discouraged, he told us.

“I’ve done everything I can to encourage the FDA to change. Nothing changes.”

Hauser has been instrumental in several discussions surrounding medical device risks and recalls, most recently in the January issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, in which he warned physicians clamoring over Boston Scientific‘s (NYSE:BSX) “leadless” implantable defibrillator to curb their enthusiasm.

He was also at the center of an April 2012 scandal over St. Jude Medical’s (NYSE:STJ) recalled Riata defibrillator leads, in which the medical device maker called for the retraction of a Hauser study attributing 22 deaths to failures in the Riata or Riata ST leads.

Hauser was also 1 of the physicians who helped uncover problems with Guidant Corp.‘s pacemakers after a patient he was treating died. Boston Scientific, which acquired Guidant for about $26 billion in 2006, is still dealing with the legal fallout from those issues.

“I’ve done everything I can to encourage the FDA to change,” Hauser told us. “Nothing changes.”

His remaining alternative, as he sees it, is to change the fundamental structure of medical device and drug surveillance in the U.S.

Even as he prepares to advocate for a new regulatory agency to take some responsibility away from the FDA, Hauser is acutely aware of the hurdles that stand in his way, perhaps foremost among them “inertia” at the FDA.

“There’s 1 chance in 100, but it’s worth taking the chance,” he said. “It’s worth the effort, because maybe in the conversation something will happen that’ll change things.”

And the FDA under the Obama administration has not welcomed recommendations for change. When the Institute of Medicine recommended in 2011 that the federal watchdog agency completely scrub its 510(k) fast-track review of medical devices, the FDA quickly responded that it was “not bound to adopt IOM recommendations.”

The agency has since signed, and the White House approved, new deals with the medical device industry that raise the fees companies pay for agency review in exchange for the FDA meeting performance goals and getting applications out the door more efficiently.

What’s the hurry?

Medical device companies and lawmakers often chide the FDA for taking too long to get new, potentially life-saving products to the U.S. market. The agency frequently finds itself defendingits timelinesor promising to improve them.

The federal watchdog agency is regularly citedas the biggest hurdle delaying new products from reaching the market and industry advocates in Congress occasionally prod the FDAto speed the review process

“I don’t think we really help people by making drugs or products available more rapidly.”

Hauser fundamentally disagrees with those efforts, he told us, challenging the underlying assumption that faster is better.

“I don’t think we really help people by making drugs or products available more rapidly,” Hauser said. “There are occasional drugs and devices that really are game-changers, that deserve expedited study and review and approval. Many, many drugs and devices are incremental improvements – or they are in competition with other drugs or devices that are safe and effective.

“Thank God we’ve got pharma, thank God we’ve got the medical device companies. There have been revolutionary products, there will continue to be revolutionary products,” he added. “But there’s rarely great urgency to get something into the marketplace.”

The healthcare industry thrives, Hauser said, by pushing out new products and marketing incremental differences, no matter how small, in order to get a leg up on the competition.

Part of that is sustained by what he called “loopholes” in the FDA’s approval process, problems that Hauser said go beyond the scope of an independent monitoring authority.

The FDA’s unintended loopholes

“There are other issues that need to be addressed, separate from a National Drug & Device Safety Board,” Hauser told us. “We need to get rid of these loopholes that allow drugs or allow devices to get approved without adequate testing.”

He named the FDA’s premarket approval supplement system among the vulnerabilities in the agency’s review that allow potentially dangerous products to reach patients.

“Supplements to the original PMA allow manufacturers to make changes to medical devices that presumably improve design, manufacturing or labeling,” Hauser told an audience during a presentation at the ACC meeting on Saturday. “However, the PMA supplement has been employed – I should say abused – to introduce essentially new products that are significantly different than the original PMA devices.

“This is another pathway whereby high-risk Class III devices have been FDA-approved for widespread use without clinical trials or any human testing,” he added.

A classic example of how that process may fail, Hauser said, involved medical device giant Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) and its Sprint Fidelis ICD lead. The Sprint Fidelis, which was approved as a supplement to the Transvene lead, was the cause of a high-profile, precedent-setting recall after it had already been implanted in some 268,000 patients.Medtronic pulled the Sprint Fidelis in 2007, when it was announced that they were prone to fracture – meaning they could either fail to deliver life-saving therapy or else send unneeded shocks.

The defective leads were implicated in more than 100 deaths, although Medtronic has said that only 13 fatalities listed the leads as a “possible or likely contributing factor.”

Hauser further targeted the FDA’s popular 510(k) medical device fast-track as an antiquated system that has outlived its usefulness. He agreed with a 2011 report released by the Institute of Medicine, the culmination of nearly 2 years and $1.3 million dollars, which recommended that the FDA scrub the 510(k) program completely.

The institute took issue withthe foundation of the 510(k) program, that devices which are “substantially equivalent” to already-approved products (so-called “predicate devices”) need not be subject to the more stringent pre-market approval process required for entirely new medical technologies.

The IOM report also found that 3 out of 4 devices recalled between 2005 and 2009 had been approved under 510(k) applications or had escaped review entirely.

The FDA’s failure to respond to recalls

The FDA has the authority to mandate recalls and investigate medical devices and drugs after they have been cleared for the U.S. market, but it rarely does so, Hauser explained.

“It’s a passive regulator,” he told us. “It tends to wait for manufacturers to voluntarily recall devices rather than pro-actively compelling manufacturers to take their products of the market or even, perhaps, to stop distributing while the potential problem is investigated.”

“How objective can a group be, inside the agency, when it’s discussing, potentially, the performance of another group inside the agency?”

Part of the problem is that the FDA is responsible for both approving devices and as well as monitoring them for problems, creating a fundamental conflict of interest within the agency, as Hauser sees it.

“Right away, you have a conflict because the group that approved the drug is going to question the group that is now criticizing the drug,” he said. “They’re all in 1 agency, and I doubt that the lines of authority, responsibility, accountability are clear. How objective can a group be, inside the agency, when it’s discussing, potentially, the performance of another group inside the agency?”

Hauser’s solution is to separate those responsibilities and task a new healthcare regulatory organization with monitoring and investigating healthcare products after the FDA has cleared them for the U.S. market. Lucky for Hauser, a model exists that exemplifies the segregation of approval and monitoring: the U.S. government’s regulatory oversight of the airline industry.

Learning from the FAA and the NTSB

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are 2 sides of the same coin, regulating the aviation industry and monitoring it for issues, but the agencies are entirely separate. The NTSB has independent authority to investigate potential issues and reports only to Congress.

The pair of agencies were originally lumped into a single authoritative body that Congress later separated on the grounds that “no federal agency can properly perform investigatory functions unless it is totally separate and independent,” Hauser highlighted in his Saturday ACC presentation.

The NTSB has no regulatory authority and can’t induce airline companies to make changes or ground flights. It conducts investigations and makes recommendations, leaving it up to the FAA to take action.

That’s precisely what Hauser prescribed for U.S. healthcare regulation.

“We need an independent organization to look at major adverse events associated with drugs and devices, separate from the FDA and which has no regulatory authority, whose only job is to investigate and then report their findings,” Hauser said. “The other thing NTSB does that we need on the medical side is they then share what they’ve learned about an accident with all the stakeholders. That doesn’t happen now with drugs and devices.”

He proposed that the NTSB participate in post-market studies, watch registries from around the world and make the data completely transparent and available to the public at large.

Hauser’s National Drug & Device Safety Board

Hauser aims to form the new healthcare regulatory agency by spinning out the FDA’s post-market surveillance efforts into an independent body modeled after the NTSB in purpose and structure.

“There would be a chairman appointed by the president and 4 board members, all of whom would have 3-5 year terms,” he told us. “The chairman would report to Congress, the board would report to Congress. They’d be an organization separate from any agency in the federal government, entirely independent.”

The new bureau would include engineers, scientists, statisticians and administrators to help monitor healthcare products on the market and collaborate with registries around the world to create a global network and public database of medical device and drug information.

The database might confer an added benefit for medical device companies and drug makers, giving them access to a comprehensive database of adverse events to help them avoid similar problems in newer products, Hauser noted, but the boon to industry is incidental to Hauser’s goal.

“It’s the end user that we’re really concerned about,” he said. “I’m not interested in helping the companies, necessarily. I’m interested in making a safer device or drug for a patient.”

FDA Proposes To Improve External Defibrillators (medicalnewstoday.com)
The Hip Replacement Case Shows Why Doctors Often Remain Silent – NYTimes.com (earlsview.com)
FDA and mobile health apps (mypersonalphone.wordpress.com)
FDA Issues Proposal To Improve The Safety Guidelines For Heart Defibrillators (medicaldaily.com)
Judges side with FDA in rejecting stem cell device (wfaa.com)
David Hauser, Co-Founder of Grasshopper Group, Shares his Entrepreneurial Journey, Lessons Learnt & More. (grasshopper.com)
Building a Company That Stands for Something: A Video Interview With David Hauser (grasshopper.com)
FDA Clarifies Plans for Mobile Health App Regulation (eweek.com)
FDA Proposes Tighter Regulation of Public Defibrillators (news.health.com)
Video: Medical devices: Video, statements and documents (pbs.org)

Filed under: FDA Approval of Hip and Knee Implants, FDA Review Tagged: Boston Scientific, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, Guidant, Health, Medicine, Medtronic, PMA, Premarket Approval, Robert Hauser, science

Metal on Metal Hips – New Video • Lampkin & Co Solicitors

earlstevens58 — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 21:24:13 +0000

Metal on Metal Hips – New Video • Lampkin & Co Solicitors.

Metal on Metal Hips – New Video

Posted by Lampkins Admin on Mar 5, 2013

Metal on Metal Hips – Understanding the Problems

We have released a new information video to help people understand the problems associated with the failure of their Metal on Metal Hip implants.

Watch our information video

In this video, we use animated graphics to illustrate what happens inside the body when the Metal on Metal Hip implant begins to fail. We’ve aimed at making it easy to understand and Mark Lampkin talks about the problems and how they can cause various issues throughout the body without any unnecessary medical or legal language.

Lampkin & Co Solicitors are leading the way on legal action in the UK regarding Metal on Metal Hip products that are failing and we are now representing a cohort of over 100 clients.

Many of our clients had heard about problems with Metal on Metal Hip Replacements but were not sure exactly what was happening. It’s estimated there could be around 50,000 people affected in the UK so we are quite sure there will be thousands more patients in the UK that don’t fully understand the problems and thus, the potential harm to their health.

If you’ve had or know someone that has had a Metal on Metal Hip procedure after 2004, contact us for advice. You can download our fact sheet on our Metal on Metal Hip page.

Please help spread the word so other sufferers can be helped – feel free to share this page via email, Facebook or Twitter.

These posts may also be of interest

High Failure Rate For Metal-On-Metal Hip Implants
Lampkins offering advice following widespread concern as research confirms high failure…
Metal Hip Implant Patients Need Life Long Checks
Lampkins specialist legal team already representing metal hip implant patients ahead…

Inportant information about legal action on metal hip – originally posted – implantsinfo@metalhipproblems.co.uk (earlsview.com)
Smith & Nephew Hip Implant Patient Diagnosed with Metallosis (earlsview.com)
FDA cracks down on all-metal hip replacements (earlsview.com)
Metal-on-metal hip implant risks ‘unique’ – Health – CBC News (earlsview.com)
Safety Communications FDA Safety Communication: Metal-on-Metal Hip Implants (earlsview.com)
US Drug Watchdog Now Urges All DePuy ASR And Pinnacle All Metal Hip Implant Recipients To Get A Blood Test And To Call Them Before The Time Runs Out To Get Identified (prweb.com)
DePuy ASR Trial – Closing Arguments – Trial plaintiff says J&J hips defective, company says not liable (earlsview.com)
US Drug Watchdog Now Urges All Metal Hip Implant Recipients Who Have Had Revision Surgeries To Call Them For The Names of Attorneys To Help Them Get Compensated (prweb.com)
Smith & Nephew Failure Warning for Birmingham Hip Implant (earlsview.com)
J&J gambled on hip implant safety, lawyer alleges – latimes.com (earlsview.com)

Filed under: Cobalt chrome, Cobalt Poisoning, Cobaltism, Hip Replacement, Hip Revisions, Metal on metal hip, Total Hip Replacement Tagged: Cobalt chrome, Cobalt poisoning, DePuy, DePuy ASR Hip, DePuy Hip Recall Litigation, DePuy Lawsuit, DePuy Orthopaedics, Food & Drug Administration, hip, Hip Replacement, Johnson, Medicine, metal, Metal on metal hip, metal-on-metal hips, metallosis, NephewSmith, Smith & Nephew, surgery, UNited States

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Profile of an FDA critic: Q&A with patient safety advocate Dr. Robert Hauser | MassDevice

Profile of an FDA critic: Q&A with patient safety advocate Dr. Robert Hauser | MassDevice.

Inspiration and disappointment

What’s the hurry?

The FDA’s unintended loopholes

The FDA’s failure to respond to recalls

Learning from the FAA and the NTSB

Hauser’s National Drug & Device Safety Board

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Metal on Metal Hips – New Video • Lampkin & Co Solicitors

Metal on Metal Hips – New Video

Metal on Metal Hips – Understanding the Problems

Watch our information video

These posts may also be of interest

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