It took more than two years for DePuy Orthopaedics and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to connect reports of early failure rates from DePuy’s ASR XL Acetabular System Hip implants and issue a recall. And now, DePuy, and its subsidiary Johnson & Johnson Company, are continuing to deny blame that their product caused pain and suffering in patients.
In a court filing October 15, Johnson & Johnson denied that blame for Gulf War veteran Scott Almhjell’s claims of pain and suffering when he underwent revision surgery and had DePuy’s recalled hip replacement surgically removed from his body, according to a press release . The company said Almhjell’s injuries were self-inflicted and did not deserve compensation.
As a South Carolina personal injury lawyer it is extremely frustrating to learn that Almhjell’s implant was installed in 2007, when DePuy was already getting reports of its hip device failing in other patients. Almhjell was not even informed of the potential defects before his surgery.
Because the ASR hip implant wasn’t recalled until July 17, 2010, Almhjell, is one patient of 13% whose implant failed, leaving him with risky, complex revision surgery.
DePuy has a huge group of experienced lawyers on their side working to minimize their payout so it’s important that you have a DePuy hip recall lawyer looking out for you as well. It is DePuy’s negligence that is causing the pain and suffering of thousands of hip replacement patients, don’t let them tell you you’re to blame.