Wednesday, December 8, 2010 - 10:32
According to Bloomberg News, a judicial panel recently decided that all of the pretrial proceedings in federal lawsuits against pharmaceutical giant, Johnson & Johnson, over their recalled hip-replacement systems will be overseen in Ohio by one federal judge.
The news source reports that U.S. District Judge David A. Katz will “supervise evidence-gathering efforts in cases over the ASR XL Acetabular System, which J&J’s DePuy Orthopaedics unit recalled on Aug. 26 after the implants stopped functioning properly.”
Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 10:49
DePuy Orthopedics, a subsidiary of pharmaceutical and chemical company Johnson & Johnson, may be held responsible legally and financially for tens of thousands of hip revision surgeries, the UK Daily Mail reports. The company sold 93,000 hip replacement devices between 2003 and August 2010, when the company instituted a recall. Out of those 93,000 devices, about 12 percent will probably fail, according to a Fox News article.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 10:43
Jacqueline Lum of Honolulu, Hawaii received a DePuy ASR Acetabular hip replacement system implant in August, 2009. Only 15 months later, Lum suffered constant pain from the defective device as it ground together and deposited toxic metal fragments into her bloodstream, a Hawaii News Now article reports. Lum was scheduled to undergo revision surgery on November 8, 2010.
Monday, November 29, 2010 - 18:57
In the midst of all the legal reports and descriptions of symptoms experienced by patients in class action and multi-district litigation suits against DePuy Orthopedics, individual patient experiences can get lost in the shuffle. However, it is this personal suffering that led to the lawsuits in the first place. While important to stay aware of the larger issue, DePuy must be held accountable for the suffering caused by its devices.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - 16:05
In September, we reported on Gulf War veteran Scott Almhjell. Almhjell was one of 93,000 people who had undergone hip replacement surgery to have a DePuy hip device implanted. Shortly after surgery he began suffering agonizing pains. He discovered in August that the hip device he was implanted with was recalled by DePuy for a high rate of failure. DePuy responded to his request for reimbursement by telling him he was responsible for his own injuries and denying his claim.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - 15:49
DePuy Orthopedics issued a recall of their ASR Acetabular hip replacement device and one other device in August of 2010. A 24-7 Press Release article quoted in full on the Medical Quack web site reveals that DePuy sent a packet to orthopedic surgeons two days before making the recall public. The packet announced the upcoming recall and instructed surgeons to pass along a medical release form to patients with the recalled device implanted.
Monday, November 15, 2010 - 18:21
Near the end of October, we reported on the likelihood that DePuy employees and officials knew of the potential and real defects in the company’s ASR hip replacement systems. Even after the company removed the product from the Australian market, it continued selling them in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world.
Monday, November 15, 2010 - 17:15
Since DePuy issued a recall of its ASR hip replacement devices in August of this year, very few major news outlets have covered local, national or internation stories related to the nearly 100,000 patients who received the faulty hip implants. A Google News search of “DePuy Hip Replacement” yields about 4 pages of articles. Most of the articles are press releases and news reports by legal teams representing plaintiffs against DePuy. So, why are major news outlets avoiding this important news item?
Friday, October 29, 2010 - 11:50
On September 30, 2010, a new class action lawsuit was filed against DePuy in the U.S. District Court for the Northen District of Ohio. The most recent suit alleges that the company is deliberately deceiving patients and misleading them to believe they will be refunded the price of surgery and the hip replacement, as well as other associated medical costs.
Friday, October 29, 2010 - 11:46
Over 93,000 patients around the world received a DePuy ASR hip replacement implant between 2003 and 2010. In August of 2010, DePuy issued a recall of the devices after massive amounts of evidence demonstrated a much higher than average failure rate - 13% in the first five years after surgery - in the recalled devices. A few lawsuits against DePuy were filed even before the recall began. Now, a few months into the recall, the number of hip replacement lawsuits increases almost daily.
