DePuy President, Andrew Ekdahl, delivered testimony during day three of Strum v. DePuy, a case being heard in a Chicago state court. The DePuy ASR Hip lawsuit involves Carol Strum, whose lawsuit against DePuy is the second of 10,750 DePuy ASR Hip lawsuit to go to trial.
According to Ekdahl, DePuy initiated the DePuy ASR Hip recall due to the high rates of revision associated with the metal-on-metal hip implant. However, according to a Businessweek article about the Chicago case, the medical device manufacturer’s defense attorney, Richard Sarver, has continued to argue that DePuy does not consider the ASR Hip implant to be a defective device, despite the high revision rate.
DePuy’s steadfast adherence to the belief in their hip implant not being a defectively designed product comes in light of a Health Hazard and Risk Evaluation Review Board document signed by senior DePuy executives shortly before the DePuy ASR Hip recall, according to Businessweek.
The document supplied three reasons for recalling a product, one of which was about a defective product that had the potential to cause injury and health complications. This option was the one selected by the DePuy senior executives as the reason for the DePuy ASR Hip recall.
Clearly, then, the internal discussions and decisions made by DePuy do not align with their public effort to assert that their metal-on-metal hip implant, though having a significantly high revision rate, is not a defective product.
Defective medical device lawyers at Carey Danis & Lowe are closely watching the DePuy ASR Hip case in Chicago to determine if any new evidence will come to light, which may influence the jury to order Johnson & Johnson and DePuy to pay punitive damages. In the first DePuy ASR Hip case heard in a California Superior Court in Los Angeles, the jury awarded the plaintiff, Loren Kransky, compensatory damages but not punitive damages.
The case being heard in Chicago is Strum v. DePuy, 2011-L-9352, Circuit Court of Cook County.
If you or someone you love has been injured by the DePuy ASR Hip implant, contact an experienced defective medical device lawyer at Carey Danis & Lowe. Receive a free legal evaluation by calling 800.721.2519 or by submitting a legal claim form.
