Injured by a defective hip implant? Compensation is available!

Hip implant is the name used for a surgical procedure during which a part of a patient’s hip bone is replaced with an artificial system. The surgery is normally performed on elderly patients who are no longer responding to other treatments. Recovering from a hip implant is a long and often painful process. It will take months until patients learn how to walk, stand up or perform everyday movements with the new device. But once they regained full movement capacity they are expecting to return to their normal way of life, especially because hip implants were created to last for at least 15 years without any additional adjustments. However when the implant is not working properly a revision surgery will be needed.
What could go wrong?
During the last years patients and doctors were often facing premature hip implant system failures. In case of certain types of implants the failure rate reached even 13%. The first sign of a problem is discomfort and pain in the hip area. That normally appears when the implant becomes loose and it is no longer correctly attached to the bone. A loose implant can not only cause hip dislocation but it also affects the bone cells and hip fracture becomes likely.
A particular problem is related to metal-on-metal hip implants. Because of the natural movement tiny pieces of metal are deposited in the surrounding areas. If the soft tissue has an adverse reaction to the toxic metal patients will notice the swelling of the hip area. However if the metal particles reach the bloodstream they can affect much more than just the hip area.
If a patient is experiencing severe pain or metal toxicity in the blood he will need a revision surgery in order to remove the defective hip and to replace it with a new one. But if the hip bone has already been affected placing another implant is going to be difficult. Even if the new surgery is successful, considering the age of the patients, recovery will be a difficult, long and painful process. There is also the possibility that patients will never regain full moving capacity.
Who is responsible?
Medical devices are not released on the market before being tested. Manufacturing companies obtain the authorization to produce a certain type of device only if their failure rate is between reasonable limits. However when a product is used at large scale on many patients, the initially predicted failure rate might increase. If that happens, manufacturing companies have the responsibility to send an official warning to doctors and patients and to recall their product. If they fail to do that and continue selling the defective product legally they can be held liable for the injuries caused.
When a medical device manufacturing company recalls one of his products it usually offers to pay the expenses of medical tests and revision surgeries. However the amount may not cover the patients loses. If that is the case victims can ask for the help of a personal injury lawyer and file injury claims against the company. But it is vital for them to consider their legal options in time, in order to avoid signing any agreements with the company and to make sure important evidence, needed in a court room will be preserved. After a successful lawsuit defective hip implant victims can obtain compensation for present and future medical costs, for medical care, pain and suffering, lost wages and disfigurement if that is the case.
So if you had to suffer a revision surgery because of a defective hip implant, that has been recalled or not, you don’t need to accept the manufacturing company’s first offer. You might be entitled to more.