Lawsuits Filed for Faulty Durom Cups

by Maxwell Schmickman

Zimmer Durom Cup Hip Implants had been used successfully in Europe for 3 years prior to being approved for use in the United States in 2006. Less than two years later, the device had already been implanted in more than 12,000 American patients, and numerous problems with the implants were already beginning to surface. American doctors started searching for reasons the procedures had failed and pinpointed the cup as a defective product that was prone to problems.

In most U.S. states, laws are in place to help patients who suffer due to defective prosthetic devices. The laws are designed to compensate them for pain, medical expenses, and the loss of wages caused by their problems with orthopedic procedures resulting from a malfunction of a prosthetic device. Zimmer, while not admitting to producing an inferior product based on its success rate in Europe, voluntarily pulled the cup from the U.S. markets in July, 2008 pending further investigation.

If you perform a search on the Internet for “Zimmer Durom Cup Lawsuits”, you will find a host of attorneys who are looking to help file lawsuits against Zimmer on behalf of patients. As the number of cases of implant failures continues to grow, these attorneys have done their research and believe that they can file successful individual or class action lawsuits against the manufacturer.

Doctors who have done further surgery to determine the cause of patient discomfort have found that the cups have loosened over time to the point where they just pop from the sockets at the slightest touch. Other patients have devices which have actually migrated a short distance in their bodies so they are no longer located exactly where they should be. Although Zimmer contends that the rate of failure of the Durom Cup is quite low, physicians believe that hundreds of them will fail and need revision within the next few years.

Stockholders in Zimmer stocks feel that the company did not pull the product from the market quickly enough causing additional problems for patients. With this feeling in mind, stockholders filed a class action lawsuit in Indiana seeking damages for those who invested in company stocks between January and July, 2008. These stockholders and their attorneys believe that Zimmer should have suspended sales before January 22, 2008 when a large number of problems began to surface.

Zimmer is still taking the position that its product is not defective. Instead they believe that the inadequate training given to physicians prior to performing the procedure is to blame. With this in mind, Zimmer announced in October, 2008 that it would be setting aside $47.5 million in order to pay off lawsuits resulting from the surgical failures referring to a July report which said that as much as 5.7% of the surgeries could require revision. This fund has been earmarked to pay for “revisions associated with surgeries that predate the company’s voluntary suspension and which also occur within two years of the original surgery date.

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Published by: Maxwell Schmickman on March 28th, 2009 | Filed under Legal



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