subject: Lawsuits Filed Against Zimmer Holdings, Inc. For Faulty Durom Cups [print this page] 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.
Most states within the U.S. have laws designed to help patients who incur pain and suffering caused by defects in prosthetic devices. Per these laws, patients are entitled to compensation for their pain, medical expenses, and lost wages if it can be proven that a defective implant was to blame for their problems. Although Zimmer still stands fully behind its device based on its track record in Europe, it voluntarily pulled the product from the American market in July, 2008 in order to develop better training methods for doctors who insert the implants.
By using Google to search the Internet for "Zimmer Durom Cup Lawsuits" you can find many websites of attorneys who feel that patients have a case against Zimmer and offer to help them file lawsuits. The number of implant failures continues to grow, and these attorneys who have taken it upon themselves to become involved truly believe that Zimmer is at fault. Physicians tend to agree and estimate that hundreds of the devices will fail within the next few years.
Physicians who have already performed exploratory surgeries to determine the cause of their patients' problems have discovered that many of the cups have loosened a great deal over time. In fact, one doctor reported that he found a cup that had loosened so much that it popped from its socket when he touched it. In other patients surgeons have found that the device has actually migrated a short distance within the body. Zimmer cites the success of the cup in Europe as basis for its belief that there is nothing defective about the device, but physicians believe that almost 6% of all Durom Cups will fail and need revision surgery within the next couple of years.
People who own Zimmer stock have come to believe that the company was negligent in waiting until July, 2008 to pull the product off the American market. They and their attorneys feel it should have been pulled prior to January 22, 2008. Because of this belief, stockholders in Indiana have filed a class action lawsuit asking that damages be paid to those investors who bought stock between the January date and July, 2008 when the problem was announced and the product taken from the market.
Zimmer still pleads its case that its Durom Cup is not to blame for the surgical failures in the United States. Instead they contend that physicians did not receive adequate training for doing the procedure. Even so, in October, 2008, Zimmer announced that it had reserved $47.5 million to pay claims won in lawsuits against it. In July it was shown that the failure rate of cup implants could be as high as 5.7%. Zimmer states that this money is not being reserved for all patients and revisions but only for "revisions associated with surgeries that predate the company's voluntary suspension and which also occur within two years of the original surgery date." The resolution of this problem remains to be seen.
