ClickCease Judge delays ASR hip implant trial again

Judge delays ASR hip implant trial again

The first federal lawsuit involving DePuy Orthopaedics’s defective ASR hip implants has been delayed for the second time.

The trial was set to begin on Tuesday, but U.S. District Judge David A. Katz postponed the trial date again, citing difficulties that both sides are having with scheduling expert witnesses.

High angle view of courtroom

Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy division faces thousands of lawsuits related to complications with its ASR Acetabular Hip System. The company lost the first lawsuit involving ASR hip implants in California state court. That case was tried by the law firm of Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger and resulted in an $8.3 million verdict on behalf of a retired Montana prison guard named Loren Kransky.

The recently delayed federal trial against DePuy is being held in the Northern District of Ohio. The case was brought by a woman from Rochester, New York, named Ann McCracken. This 57-year-old single mother and business owner alleges that she received her ASR hip implant in 2009.

McCracken was allegedly told that the DePuy ASR was ideal for younger and more active patients like her because its metal-on-metal design would last longer.

Just the opposite turned out to be true.

Depuy’s metal-on-metal hip implant device has astronomically high premature failure rates and was subject of a recall in the fall of 2010.

McCracken had to undergo a revision surgery in January 2011, during which doctors noticed that she suffered from metallosis, a serious condition in which metal debris from a hip implant inflames and then kills surrounding soft tissue.

The single mother says that her failed DePuy ASR hip implant is responsible for subsequent hip dislocations. She had to have a third hip surgery in October 2011 to restrict the movement of her hip in hopes of preventing further dislocations. She says this has significantly decreased the quality of her life and that thousands of other patients have suffered the same harm.

“I look forward to explaining my ordeal to a jury and to holding these companies accountable for selling a defective product,” McCracken told the Daily Record newspaper. “My implant’s failure has negatively affected my life and I have to live daily with the fear of another dislocation and the certainty of more surgery.”

Female Woman Hospital Doctor Looking at X-Rays & Laptop

Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy division is one of many medical device manufacturers facing litigation arising out of defective metal-on-metal hip implants. Lawsuits are also mounting against companies like Stryker, which recalled its Rejuvenate and ABG II modular-neck stems last July. These devices have experienced fretting and corrosion similar to DePuy’s ASR.

Patients who have received Stryker Rejuvenate implants have experienced symptoms similar DePuy ASR patients including premature hip implant failure, metallosis, tissue death, and decreased mobility.

U.S. District Judge David A. Katz is expected to reschedule Ann McCracken’s trial sometime within the next 90 days.


The Walkup firm, and most notably, partners, Michael Kelly, Matthew Davis, Khaldoun Baghdadi and Douglas Saeltzer, were among the first lawyers in the country to file cases arising from metal-on-metal hip injuries. As the first law firm to win a DePuy ASR jury verdict, Walkup has amassed a considerable amount of expertise and expert resources regarding metal-on-metal devices.

If you or a loved one has received a metal-on-metal hip implant device such as the DePuy ASR or Stryker Rejuvenate, contact the Walkup Law Firm online or call 415-981-7210 .