Pennsylvania Man Claims DePuy Pinnacle Hip Implant is Defective, Caused Metal Poisoning

A Pennsylvania man claims he suffered serious and debilitating injuries caused by the DePuy Orthopaedics Pinnacle Acetabular System Device metal-on-metal hip implant.

Mark Hart, has become the latest to file a lawsuit against DePuy and its parent company, Johnson & Johnson, alleging that they conspired to hide evidence that people who received the DePuy Pinnacle hip implant could be at risk of serious injuries. According to The Pennsylvania Record, Hart filed a lawsuit against the companies in a federal court in Philadelphia earlier this month.

In the lawsuit, Hart claims that he suffered serious injuries, including bone loss and metal poisoning, that will prevent him from undergoing another surgery to replace his current implant, the one he received after a revision surgery removed the allegedly defective DePuy Pinnacle hip implant. An attorney for Hart says that his client will eventually be confined to a wheelchair once his current hip implant needs to be replaced as there isn’t sufficient bone structure in his hip to support another implant surgery, The Pennsylvania Record notes. Hart underwent a revision surgery last year to replace the DePuy Pinnacle hip device. 

The DePuy Pinnacle hip implant is marketed with a variety of component parts and Hart opted for the metal-on-metal version. The metal-on-metal version  of the Pinnacle hip implant has been the subject of numerous complaints already filed in courts across the country, as we’ve long written.

This latest complaint, according to The Pennsylvania Record report, alleges that DePuy and Johnson & Johnson were aware of the complications that could arise from using metal-on-metal hip implants, specifically the DePuy Pinnacle model.

The wear of the metal components against each other releases dangerous amounts of metallic ions into a recipient’s bloodstream, putting them at risk of serious injuries that may ultimately lead to a painful, complex, and costly revision surgery. Metal poisoning can lead to organ and tissue damage, among other complications. These are hallmark complications of metal-on-metal hip implants, which has drawn the attention of federal regulators who have ordered makers of these devices to produce solid clinical evidence that these implants don’t put recipients at increased risk for injuries.

Hart says that his injuries allegedly caused by the DePuy Pinnacle hip implant could have been avoided if the companies responsible for the Pinnacle had warned about the risks of metal poisoning when they became aware of them,  The Pennsylvania Record wrote.