First Verdict Against DePuy in Recalled Hip – $8.3 Million

A jury in California returned a verdict for $8.3 million against Johnson & Johnson, makers of the recalled DePuy hip replacement device. It is estimated that more than 90,000 of these ASR hip implants were recalled in mid-2010. At the time, the company said that 12 percent were expected to fail within five years. The verdict, which came in the Los Angeles Superior Court following a six-week trial, is the first of many to follow. Clifford Law Offices represents a number of people who have had the faulty devices implanted in them, despite the makers of the device not adequately testing them before putting them on the market in 2005. More than 10,000 lawsuits have been filed against Johnson & Johnson connected with this device. Many people with the recalled device required revision surgeries, only to have surgeons find blackened, necrotic, dying tissue around the hip implant. The DePuy ASR XL hip implant also shed high levels of cobalt and chromium, which led to many problems of the elevated metal levels in a person’s bloodstream. Lawyers at the California trial explained how the DePuy makers bypassed extensive testing of the metal-on-metal device so that it could put the profitable prosthetic device on the market sooner. Allegations also surfaced of the company dismissing surgeons’ complaints about problems and failures of the device. The California jury found $8 million for physical pain and emotional suffering and $338,136 in medical expenses on behalf of Loren Kransky.