Failure to Warn Claims for Metal Hip Replacements
Metal-on-metal hip replacements have a higher failure rate than traditional hip replacement products. The specific dangers associated with metal-on-metal hip replacements include metallosis, severe pain, and frequent revisionary surgery. Metallosis is caused by the release of metal ions as the metal ball and socket of the hip replacement rub together, creating a toxic environment for the body. Additionally, patients often need revisionary surgery. Revisionary surgery is the replacement of a failed or worn out hip replacement. Often these surgeries are very painful and require long recovery periods.
If you have been subjected to this, contact an experienced Raleigh metal hip replacement lawyer to consider filing a failure to warn hip replacement suit.
Elements of a Successful Claim
A failure to warn claim is the result of a big company or manufacturer knowing the dangers associated with a product or medical device and failing to warn the consuming public or physicians about those dangers.
For a successful hip replacement failure to warn claim, there must be some indication that the company had data from its clinical trials submitted to the FDA, showing a higher than usual failure rate among study participants. The company or manufacturer may have belittled the failure rate information, actively hid it, or simply did not highlight it when submitting their findings to the FDA.
If the product or medical device continues to demonstrate the failure rate seen in the clinical trials once it has been distributed to the public, they should have warned the public and physicians about the issue. The company should have warned the FDA about the issues and higher than normal failure rates when they submitted their product for approval. Additionally, they should have warned the public and physicians about the failure rates and the dangers associated with it.
The metal-on-metal hip replacement warnings not initially made known to patients and doctors included the issues of metallosis, increased wear over a shorter period of time, and the necessity of a revision surgery.
Submitting a Claim
If the cases have been consolidated in multidistrict litigation the person needs to have access to the multidistrict legislation approved complaint to fill out the plaintiff’s information. Shortly thereafter, the attorney would submit a plaintiff fact sheet where they give details on the discovery about the plaintiff and submit that to the defendant. Then the plaintiff’s attorney will begin the process of obtaining any and all medical records for their client.
Financial Compensation
If a global settlement is reached, then the compensation made available to victims of the replacement failure becomes a base award for each individual claimant. To be included in the settlement, the individual would need to have filed their lawsuit by a certain date as well as undergone a revision surgery by a certain date, and then they would become eligible for the base award.
There are factors that could make the award higher or lower. The award would be higher if the revision surgery was very close in time from the initial replacement. The award would be higher if the revision surgery resulted in extra complications. The award would be lower if the person was a smoker, obese, or had some other health issues.
