Walkup law firm partner Michael A. Kelly has been appointed lead/liaison counsel for all plaintiffs in the California Judicial Council Coordinated Proceeding (JCCP) before Judge Richard Kramer in San Francisco. There are currently more than 1400 lawsuits pending against DePuy in California.
In addition to Mr. Kelly, Walkup partners Matthew Davis, Doug Saeltzer and Khaldoun Baghdadi and associates Spencer Pahlke and Conor Kelly are involved in DePuy litigation.
The Walkup firm has been at the forefront of DePuy hip replacement litigation since 2008 when it filed the first cases in California. Our attorneys have consulted with experts in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Western Europe. We are involved in the science, factual discovery and trial planning for the California venued cases, and are networked with lawyers handling the ones outside of California.
Since the ASR recall in August 2010, the FDA has received thousands of complaints regarding metal-on-metal prosthetic hip complications. According to an article in The New York Times, at the current rate, the DePuy ASR prosthesis will become the most costly medical implant disaster since Medtronic was required to recall more than 7,000 pacemakers in 2007.
We currently have more than 175 cases filed in the California JCCP, and are evaluating many more to determine the extent and nature of the injury caused by the device.
Besides those patients who have required a revision (e.g. re-operation) due to mechanical problems, pain and infection, we are being retained by many DePuy implant victims who need joint replacement because of highly elevated levels of cobalt and chromium in their blood.
Because the ASR system was marketed in the US following the 510(k) approval by the FDA, there was no pre-market testing in patients to measure the potential accumulation of heavy metals in their blood. Nor were there any clinical trials to evaluate the performance of the devices over an extended period of time in humans.
Soft tissue (muscle, fat and tendon) damage being caused by excessive metal particle wear has also surfaced as a problem. Although the majority of patients have physical pain, other ASR victims have no pain, but experience permanent soft tissue loss which complicates any revision surgery.
To learn more about the DePuy hip implant recall and associated defective product lawsuits, contact a DePuy hip litigation specialist at Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger.