As we age, we might start suffering from various health problems. The most common ones include hearing or sight deterioration, fading memory, and worn-out joints. Fortunately, current medicine can handle most of them nowadays. Hip replacement surgery, in particular, is a very popular procedure that significantly improves patients’ lives. If performed correctly, it can alleviate a lot of the patients’ pain and suffering. However, if the metal hip replacements are faulty, this can have serious or even fatal consequences.
The patients’ health is entirely in the hands of the doctor or the hip implant manufacturer. If the implant is poorly designed or manufactured, it can limit the patients’ mobility even more than before the surgery and lead to a lot of pain. And if the surgery is done wrong, it can cause a lot of trouble as well. If this happens to you or a loved one, it’s important that you seek compensation. By doing so, apart from getting compensated for your expenses, you are also sending a message to the pharmaceutical companies that they can’t mess with your health and get away with it.
Are you suffering the consequences of a hip replacement defect? You may be entitled to compensation. However, in the process of claiming damages, you will encounter various obstacles and will probably need to face big corporations. It is therefore advisable to have a skilled personal injury attorney by your side to support your claim as much as possible. The attorneys from The Law Place have more than 75 years of combined experience and have already helped many clients to receive fair compensation for their defective hip implants. If you want to learn more about our services, don’t hesitate to contact us today at (941) 444-4444 for a free consultation. We are here for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Hip Replacement Overview
The hip is a ball-and-socket joint. The socket is part of the pelvis and contains bone and cartilage. The ball is at the top of the thighbone. Sometimes, the socket or the thighbone gets damaged due to an injury or illness. This condition can then limit your everyday activities, put a strain on your ability to walk, and can leave you in a lot of pain. Some conditions can be resolved with physical therapy and medication, but if the condition is more severe or the non-invasive treatment doesn’t work, the patient can be prescribed hip replacement surgery.
Hip replacement is a surgical procedure where a damaged hip joint is replaced by an artificial one. It’s usually performed in patients from 50 to 80 years of age. Doctors usually don’t recommend it later than this since the patient’s health must be good enough to handle a major surgery and the following rehabilitation. The surgery is performed under a general or spinal anesthetic. The surgeon makes an incision, removes the damaged hip joint, and replaces it with a metal hip implant.
Hip replacement is most commonly used to remedy the following conditions:
- Rheumatoid arthritis, which is an autoimmune disease that causes joint inflammation.
- Traumatic arthritis, which is arthritis caused by an injury.
- Osteoarthritis, which is a degenerative joint disease that’s most common in older adults.
- Hip fracture.
- Unusual bone growth.
Filing a Lawsuit for a Defective Hip Replacement in St. Petersburg, FL.
To win a lawsuit for a faulty hip replacement, you will need to prove somebody’s negligence. Two parties might be at fault: the surgeon and the hip replacement manufacturer. In either case, after you file the lawsuit, you could find yourself facing a big corporation or an insurance company. In such a case, it’s really handy to have a skilled lawyer by your side. The attorneys from The Law Place have enough experience to handle the case successfully. Call us today, schedule a free case evaluation with one of our attorneys, and find out more about what we can do for you.
Medical Malpractice Cases
If the surgeon’s negligence caused you additional health issues or worsened your present condition, it’s considered medical malpractice. If you want to file a medical malpractice lawsuit, you will need to prove the following:
- The surgeon owed you a duty of care.
- This duty of care has been breached.
- You sustained injuries as a result of the breach.
- Your attorney must be able to prove that you suffered damages from the injury.
Your attorney will have to prove that the surgeon’s work wasn’t in accordance with the standard of medical care. An experienced attorney will know how to do this, with the best way to ask other medical experts to provide their opinion. This would be very hard to do on your own. However, if you hire a professional attorney, they will take this burden off your shoulders, so you will be able to focus fully on your recovery.
Defective Product Negligence
There are three main types of defects that can occur with hip replacements:
- Design defects – If the metal hip implant is designed poorly, it puts the patient’s health at risk.
- Manufacturing defect – If the metal hip implant was manufactured poorly, even though the design was good, it could lead to serious health problems.
- Failure to warn – The metal hip implant became defective because the manufacturer didn’t provide accurate instructions for it.
Your lawyer will need to prove that the metal hip implant was faulty. If they can do so, you have sufficient evidence for filing a hip replacement lawsuit. It doesn’t matter what the original intent of the manufacturer was. If you were harmed or put in danger because of their negligence, you deserve to be compensated for it.
Litigation Against Specific Manufacturers
Many patients have claimed compensation for a defective hip implant since it’s the most logical thing to do if you have problems with your hip replacement. If you are in the same situation, you should consider joining them. Hip implant manufacturers differ in their quality, and some manufacturers get sued more than others. The most “famous” ones include:
- Smith & Nephew – The Smith & Nephew company has been sued for their BHR and R3 hip implants more than 600 times.
- DePuy Orthopaedics – This firm manufactured two defective types of hip implants: the Pinnacle and the ASR XL Acetabular Hip System. To date, it has faced over 20,000 lawsuits worth more than $4.5 billion just for these two hip implants.
- Wright Medical – This company has paid damages in the amount of $330 million. However, new lawsuits have been disallowed since it no longer manufactures hip implants.
- Stryker – Stryker has been sued for many faulty hip implants, including the LFIT V40 Femoral Head, Tritanium Acetabular Shells, and Rejuvenate, and ABG II. Together it has faced over 3,700 lawsuits, and many more are still pending.
No matter who manufactured your artificial hip, if it was defective, you have the right to receive compensation for it. So, don’t hesitate, contact The Law Place to get a consultation on your case for free with our attorneys. We will do our best to protect your rights, regardless of whether your opponent is a small company or an international corporation.
Claiming Damages for a Hip Replacement Defect in Florida
If you have received a defective hip replacement, you could be experiencing severe pain, inflammation, swelling, decreased mobility, infection, or even metallosis (metal poisoning). Your condition might even require revision surgery. This can be associated with astronomical medical expenses. Moreover, it can also limit your ability to perform your work, which can affect your family budget even more. Our attorney can help you claim the following damages:
- Medical bills – You should be compensated for all your medical expenses, including the revision surgery, medication, physical therapy, and travel costs. This includes not only your current expenses but also your future medical bills.
- Lost wages – Problems with hip replacements usually limit the patients’ mobility and ability to perform their work. If this is your situation, you deserve to be compensated for your lost wages and lost earning potential. This means that if you have to change your job and receive a lower salary as a consequence, you deserve to get compensated for that.
- Pain and suffering – If your hip implant defect leaves you with emotional trauma or prevents you from enjoying your life as before, you should be compensated for it. However, these damages are very hard to claim, and it usually takes an experienced lawyer to win a settlement for pain and suffering.
- Wrongful death – In the most serious cases, medical malpractice or medical device defects can lead to the death of a loved one. If this happens to you, you should be compensated for the funeral expenses and loss of consortium.
At The Law Place, we understand that no amount of financial compensation can repair the trauma of having to undergo a second hip replacement surgery or losing a loved one. However, it can at least improve your economic situation so that you don’t have to worry about the finances and can focus fully on your recovery. And there is another burden we can take off your shoulders: if we agree on cooperation, we will take care of all the paperwork and unpleasant phone calls on your behalf. So, don’t hesitate and schedule a free consultation with us so that you can finally take a rest.
Call The Law Place Today
Are you suffering from serious medical consequences caused by a defective hip implant? Then don’t hesitate and call our law firm. Our attorneys have vast experience in many practice areas, so they should be able to help you with any legal claim you need. Moreover, most of them have been rated 10.0 by AVVO, which is the best mark a lawyer can receive on this site. Therefore, you don’t have to worry whether you are in good hands.
With our law firm, you also don’t have to worry about legal fees. We work on a contingency basis, which means that we don’t get paid unless we win a settlement for you. This way, we don’t add to your stress by burdening you financially. Our fees get deducted afterward from the settlement we negotiate for you.
So, contact The Law Place today and schedule a non-binding, free consultation with one of our personal injury attorneys. You can reach us at (941) 444-4444.
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