Know Your Legal Rights In the Aftermath of DePuy Hip Recall

The DePuy Hip Recall concerns patients who have received either the DePuy ASR XL Acetabular system or the DePuy ASR Hip Resurfacing System. The hip recall brought considerable alarm in patients who have received the mostly-metal implant.

The DePuy Orthopedics hip recall follows a high revision rate among users. It was reported by DePuy during the announcement that there is an indication of 12% revision rate among recipients who received the DePuy ASR resurfacing system. It was also reported that a corrective surgery rate of 13% in those who received the DePuy ASR XL Acetabular system.

Nonetheless, it was stated by the British Orthopedic Association that the recalled ASR XL device has a revision rate of 21% after only four years and 49% revision rate after only six years. Thus, a patient who undergone a hip replacement surgery starting 2003 may be under the DePuy recall. Now, there are about 93,000 individuals worldwide on record who received the implant.

Anyone implanted with the recalled DePuy hip replacement system must first contact his surgeon or physician for verification as to whether he has received a DePuy hip replacement device.

Whenever a patient is certain that he has been a recipient of the subject device, he must then seek legal counsel from an expert hip recall lawyer who is available to help. These product liability lawyers will supply all the pertinent information on the victim’s legal rights and help him get the compensation he deserves from the defective hip replacement system’s manufacturer.

Scores of patients have already filed claims against the manufacturer for their much-deserved compensation. Patients who may be advised by the their physicians to undergo revision surgery must see a legal expert before a corrective procedure in order to determine the necessary actions that can be taken to preserve the evidence needed to advance their claims in court. Delays could significantly jeopardize the patients health and what he is entitled to.

Whenever a patient is subject to the DePuy recall, it is advisable that he acts promptly since state laws only provide limited period of time for a patient to file his legal claims. When the time elapsed, there would be no legal actions allowed against the manufacturer of the defective hip replacement system.

Moreover, there is a possibility that hip replacement recipients may not know the problem their device may be causing, as the pain is not usually linked to a failed hip replacement. If the recipient fails to contact a lawyer for individual representation, he might end up being joining a DePuy ASR hip recall class action lawsuit.

In August of 2010, DePuy announced the recall of their hip replacement systems only about eight months after the recall of the devices in Australia – both the DePuy ASR XL hip replacement system and the DePuy ASR resurfacing system were both recalled. A lot of the recipients have been concerned as to how the DePuy hip replacement might affect their lives. The simple answer would be that there might be a required hip revision surgery or complications resulting from chromium and cobalt poisoning.