A New York man claims his metal-on-metal hip implant was defective and required replacement within a year of receiving it. This has left him facing a lifetime of pain, disability, and rising medical costs. He has filed a lawsuit against Biomet Inc., Biomet LLC, and Biomet Orthopedics in U.S. District Court for the Southern District […]
A New York man claims his metal-on-metal hip implant was defective and required replacement within a year of receiving it. This has left him facing a lifetime of pain, disability, and rising medical costs.
He has filed a lawsuit against Biomet Inc., Biomet LLC, and Biomet Orthopedics in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He’s represented by the national law firm of Parker Waichman LLP, which represents a growing number of victims of defective all-metal hip implants.
In his lawsuit, the Plaintiff alleges defects with the Biomet M2a Magum hip replacement caused him to suffer severe and permanent injuries, as this and similar implants have caused thousands more people worldwide. In addition to the physical pain and permanent injuries, he’s also suffered from emotional distress, likely caused by the trauma of repeated revision surgeries, the constant pain, and a knowing that full mobility may never be an option again.
The complaint further alleges that Biomet continues to market this metal-on-metal hip implant as safe and effective without much proper medical evidence to support those claims. In fact, there are at least 350 adverse event reports on file with the Food and Drug Administration alleging defects and injuries caused by this specific implant.
The New York man reports he received the Biomet M2a Magum hip replacement in February 2011. Within a year, the implant was coming out and being replaced because he had suffered from constant pain and other injuries since receiving the Biomet device. The results of the revision surgery have now left him “more vulnerable to complications in the future,” according to a firm press release announcing the lawsuit filing.
The most commonly reported defects and injuries associated with the Biomet M2a Magum hip replacement are its high failure rate and the need to be replaced long before a prospective recipient is told it would need to be replaced. All-metal implants like this Biomet device are marketed toward younger recipients because they’re supposed to last a few years longer than traditional implants. The converse has been true almost across the market, and nearly every metal-on-metal implant features a high early failure rate.
The Biomet device has also been known to cause necrosis, or tissue death, elevated levels of toxic metals cobalt and chromium, pain and inflammation at the site of the implant that’s been known to spread to other parts of the body, osteolysis (bone loss), and fluid collecting at the site of the implant.
Numerous reports have estimated the early failure rates on metal-on-metal hip implants, with the lowest registering at about 6 percent but for some devices it’s as high as 30 percent. A total of 21 manufacturers of metal-on-metal hip implants have recently been ordered by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct and product post-market safety data that shows this entire range of implants is safe and effective. The high failure rates and the dangers of metal poisoning caused by normal wear-and-tear of the implants has this type of implant in jeopardy of being completely removed from the market and leaving tens of thousands of recipients wondering if and when to have their implant replaced.
