Faulty hip replacement claims

First4lawyers and our panel of solicitors are helping hundreds of people claim compensation for the pain that they have suffered at the hands of the faulty hip replacement and resurfacing devices that have been implanted into unsuspecting patients over the past eight years. The defective DePuy ASR XL Acetabular System and the DePuy ASR Hip Resurfacing System (ASR) unit, both made by Depuy hip replacements (a branch of Johnson & Johnson), have, in fact, been used in around 8,000 patients in the UK since 2003, having been fitted in both total hip replacement and hip resurfacing operations alike.

Hip Replacement Recall

The very real concerns regarding the premature failure of this particular product led to its recall by DePuy in 2010, after countless patients were forced to undergo corrective surgery as a result of devastating hip replacement and resurfacing complications they caused.

If you’ve undergone hip replacement or resurfacing surgery since 2003, you could well be entitled to compensation. For expert advice on how to claim, contact us immediately on:

FREEPHONE 0800 567 7866

Alternatively, you can fill in the contact form to the right to request a free call back.

Grisly symptoms

DePuy’s poor-quality devices have caused a number of extremely distressing symptoms in their subjects, ranging from benign tumours to excruciating pain, dislocation, blood poisoning, partial loss of sensation in the legs and loss of mobility.

The most pertinent aspect of the failure of Depuy hip replacement devices is that the damage caused to surrounding tissue by the metal-on-metal mechanisms, particularly to the muscle, makes revision surgery incredibly difficult, and often causes the new hip to fail prematurely.

In fact, research has found that one out of every eight hip replacements and resurfacings fail within five years of both devices’ expected 35-year lifespan.

The erosion of muscle tissue as a direct consequence of DePuy’s faulty devices is also the most prevalent problem for those who have undergone a hip resurfacing or replacement operations, and some patients have even found that their new hip has failed within months, weeks, and even days of receiving surgery.

This muscle erosion means that patients are left with almost nothing keeping the ‘head’ in the ‘cup’, causing the hip to dislocate very easily. It then becomes necessary for the patient to undergo further surgery to fit a new and much more restrictive socket which, while preventing further dislocation, greatly restricts movement of the joint, and isn’t an outright solution, because these are also subject to failure because of the lack of tissue.

Around 93,000 people worldwide have so far been fitted with DePuy’s defective implant.

Early warning signs

It is claimed that early warning signs of the products’ defectiveness came as many as three years before the official recall in the UK by DePuy. The Australia joint registry, which holds a database that monitors patient complaints, and is the world’s second largest such registry next to the England and Wales National Joint Registry (NJR), allegedly first warned DePuy about excessive rates of complications and failure resulting from its ASR hip replacement device as far back as 2007.

While DePuy was to continue selling both its substandard products across the rest of the world for a further three years, Australia's medical-device regulator sent the company seven separate reports, each comprehensively detailing patient complaints and symptoms. The widespread use of DePuy's ASR XL Acetabular System its ASR Hip Resurfacing System was significantly cut as the epidemic of complaints emerged, but they were only finally voluntarily withdrawn from the Australian market in December 2009.

Here in the UK in 2008, bioengineer Dr Tom Joyce also led a research team at Newcastle University who, with the assistance of orthopaedic surgeon David Langton, set about testing over 100 explanted devices sent to them from all over Europe. The team found erosion of the devices’ metal surfaces, which caused chromium and cobalt particles to be released into the bloodstream and surrounding tissue.

This is not an isolated case for DePuy, which has previously been sued over its faulty Hylamer hip and shoulder implants, while last summer, one of its knee components was recalled due to the fact that it leaked aluminium.

Media coverage

Newspaper reports from the various national newspapers including the Telegraph, the Independent and the Daily Mail started surfacing around April 2010, with latest reports confirming that over 500 patients are now beginning to go ahead with legal action against the Johnson and Johnson subsidiary.

While DePuy is said to be being sued internationally by hospital chiefs and individuals alike, British grandmother of eight, Diana Hedley, has begun legal action against the company, according to a report on July 17 2011 in The Sunday Sun newspaper.

70-year-old Mrs Hedley, who lives on Spain’s Costa Blanca, had hip replacement surgery there in 2009 after suffering from an arthritic hip. Like hundreds of other Brits, she claims that her operation left her on crutches and unable to walk unsupported.

We can help

If you’ve undergone hip replacement or resurfacing surgery, have been fitted with either the DePuy ASR hip replacement XL Acetabular System or the DePuy ASR Hip Resurfacing System, and have been suffering from any complications or are concerned about health implications as a result, then you could be entitled to make a claim for hip replacement compensation against the manufacturer, DePuy. Because there are TIME LIMITS in place for bringing a claim, we advise you to contact us immediately on FREEPHONE 0800 567 7866.

Request a FREE CALL BACK by filling in the form to the right, and one of our expert advisors will contact you (without obligation) to discuss the matter further at your preferred time.

No Win No Fee arrangements may be available depending on your case.