Cresskill, NJ: Desperately ill Vietnam Veteran Leon Kransky may not live to see his legal claims regarding the failure of his DePuy ASR hip replacement resolved, thanks to the company’s legal delaying tactics. The J & J subsidiary claims that Kransky’s doctor knew of the risks associated with the device and failed to adequately inform Kransky. DePuy also contends that the suit should not be heard in a California court because the device was installed in Helena, Montana, while Kransky was living in North Dakota. DePuy’s Hip Replacement System is the subject of over 8,000 lawsuits in the U.S. alone because of its 44% revision rate at seven years as opposed to the 6% revision rate at ten years of all other total hip replacement devices. Unless dismissed, DePuy’s delaying tactic will prolong the cases coming to court, raising the question, will Kransky live to hear a verdict or see a settlement? To ease the suffering of all the DePuy plaintiffs and their legal representatives, RD Legal Funding, LLC (“RD Legal”) is offering lawsuit settlement funding as soon as settlement amounts have been approved.
On September 13, 2012, Kransky’s expedited motion for preferential trial setting was approved because of the severity of his ill-health. While on duty in Vietnam from 1966 to 1970 with the US Air Force 41st Air Rescue and Recovery Unit and 366 Field Maintenance Squadron, Kransky was exposed to Agent Orange. Diagnosed with diabetes, neuropathy, arteriosclerosis, and heart problems, he became eligible for medical benefits through the Veteran’s Administration (VA). Dr. Wendt implanted the ASRXL hip into Kransky at the Helena, Montana VA hospital in 2005. The device’s failure caused the already gravely ill Kransky unnecessary pain, inflammation and infection, debilitation, partial or complete immobility, and the need to undergo revision surgery.
DePuy claims that Dr. Wendt—who is not on the list of doctors who received kickbacks to promote DePuy hip replacement devices—failed to adequately warn Kransky about the device’s shedding medal debris into the body. However DePuy and other companies promoted their devices directly to hospitals, so Dr. Wendt may not have had any choice in the device used. DePuy maintains that there is no evidence that Kransky’s ASR XL hip implant was negligently manufactured. Kransky’s lawyers counter that if DePuy had withdrawn the device in 2007—when the FDA received multiple complaints and statistical evidence of elevated levels of device failure was recorded in Australia, Great Britain and Wales—thousands of patients would have avoided debilitative physical suffering and financial hardship.
Along with device failure, friction between the metal ball and cup of the DePuy metal-on-metal hip replacement causes minuscule metal filings to break off, seep into the blood, resulting in inflammation, destroying muscle and bone, poisoning major organs, producing genetic changes, and increasing cancer risks, particularly in the kidneys and bladder. A February 2012 British study reported that 17 out of 72 metal-on-metal hip replacement patients showed genetic damage to the DNA in their bladders; of them, three had already developed full-blown cancer and the others are at significant risk.
For more information about post-settlement funding, attorneys for the DePuy litigants should contact RD Legal at 1-800-565-5177 or visit http://www.legalfunding.com/solutions/fee_acceleration.cfm. Plaintiffs involved in the litigation should click here to learn more and fill out a brief online application. Founded in 1997, RD Legal is now one of the nation's leading providers of post-settlement lawsuit funding to attorneys and plaintiffs.
SOURCES:
http://harrismartin.com/article/15212/california-court-grants-2-expedited-trial-motions-by-depuy-asr-implant-plaintiffs
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/9061781/Hip-replacement-patients-could-face-increased-risk-of-cancer.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03ortho.html
http://www.massdevice.com/news/depuy-aims-dismiss-patient-lawsuit-against-recalled-hip-implant
http://www.mydepuyhiprecall.com
http://harrismartin.com/article/15430/depuy-moves-for-partial-summary-judgment-before-jan-trial-in-asr-hip-case
http://www.depuyrecallnewscenter.com/updates/date-set-for-californias-first-depuy-trial
http://www.consumerinjurylawyers.com/DePuy/Veterans-DePuy-Hip-Implants.html
http://www.prweb.com/releases/prwebrottenstein-law-group/depuy-hip-replacement/prweb10213938.htm
http://www.consumerinjurylawyers.com/pinnacle-hip-lawsuits-in-california-may-be-heading-for-consolidation
