The first federal bellwether jury trial against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) subsidiary, DePuy, for its allegedly defective Pinnacle Hip Implant, is underway in Dallas, Texas, with jury selection and opening arguments completed
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas oversaw jury selection on September 2. Opening arguments began September 3.
Thousands of patients suffered needlessly due to the product’s defective design and questionable marketing. J&J marketed the metal-on-metal implants, which were first sold in the U.S. in 2005, as a design that would last twenty years and offer greater range of motion
Kathleen Herlihy-Paoli claims that DePuy’s metal hips leaked cobalt and chromium material into her bloodstream, causing an infection and other complications, which required surgical removal of the device.
Attorneys for a Montana woman who sued after complications from the DePuy Pinnacle Hip Implant forced her to have the device surgically removed, told jurors in Dallas federal court on the first day of trial in her lawsuit that DePuy Orthopaedics ignored signs that the Pinnacle hips suffered from design defects and assured doctors that the metal devices worked, “99.9 percent of the time.”
Although not recalled like the DePuy ASR hip implants, Bloomberg.com reports that J&J stopped selling the metal-on-metal version of the Pinnacle hip in August 2013 after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it would require device makers to submit new versions of the artificial hips for pre-market approval.
There are currently more than 6,000 cases pending in the Pinnacle multidistrict litigation consolidated before the Honorable U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade. Inadequate testing, failure to warn and defective design of the hip implant device will be discussed and debated during the Pinnacle trial, which is expected to last 6-8 weeks.
Manufacturers and distributors of goods must be held responsible when their products endanger consumers. If you or a loved one suffered injuries as a result of a metal-on-metal implant device, you may be entitled to compensation for your damages. Feel free to contact one of our experienced Gacovino Lake attorneys at 1-800-246-HURT (4878) for more information.
