DePuy Orthopaedics, a Johnson & Johnson company, crafted their own variations of hip implants, namely the ASR XL Acetabular System and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System. To suffer from a major hip disorder is not the usual challenge you face every day, and so DePuy has responded to this concern by creating metal-on-metal hip implants. Just last August 2010, however, they announced a massive recall on their products, which caught thousands of recipients by surprise. The Food and Drug Administration in the United States, apparently, took notice of the growing number of complaints. Authorities in the United Kingdom and Australia have also observed the gradual increase in revision surgeries through their effective artificial implant registries. It was through these registries that the failure rate of the ASR hip implants was discovered to be at a high level of 13%. Now, in Canada, three class action lawsuits await DePuy.
One class action lawsuit was filed in one of Canada’s largest states, in the Quebec Superior Court. Other class action lawsuits were filed in other states, particularly in Calgary, Alberta and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Canadian victims of the DePuy hip recall received the implants sometime between 2006 and 2010, when the company issued a product recall. Apart from DePuy, other hip implant manufacturers such as Zimmer Corp. and Stryker Corp. are also set to face lawsuits. In the United States, DePuy is now facing a multi-district litigation (MDL) in Northern Ohio, with District Judge David A. Katz as the presiding judge.
Regardless of where the victims of the DePuy hip recall live, they all clamor for justice and fair compensation. The ASR devices ceased to function after about five years or less, which is quite far cry from the accepted 15-year lifespan of metal hip implants. They have also caused the victims insurmountable pain and stress, so it is only appropriate for DePuy to compensate for all the damages and out-of-pocket expenses. It is impossible, though, to file a DePuy recall lawsuit by yourself without any legal support. Thus, hip recall lawyers should be consulted.