Tom McCutcheon – Attorney at Law
We are distributing money to our clients who hired us on the DePuy hip replacement cases. These cases involve DePuy metal on metal hip replacements manufactured by DePuy Orthopaedics which is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.
These hips were used in the United States beginning in August of 2005 after receiving FDA approval until their recall in August of 2010. Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $2.5 billion dollars to settle thousands of hip implant cases. We know from studies done in England that these hips fail at the rate of 1 in 5 after four (4) years and 5 in 10 after six (6) years.
The money that we are now receiving on behalf of our clients is the first round of payments for people who have already had the artificial hip surgically replaced. The next round of payments will be for those people who also have had their hips surgically replaced but after the first round cutoff date.
These hips fail in two (2) main ways. First the hip often does not sit well in the hip and can slip and secondly, the metal on metal wear causes microscopic metal shavings to be deposited into the surrounding blood and tissue which causes an inflammatory reaction to the elevated metal level in the blood and tissue called “metallosis”.
If you have a DePuy hip and would like for us to handle your case, give us a call even if you haven’t had any problems. Be aware that DePuy hired a company called Broadspire to deal with the medical bills of DePuy hip implant recipients. We advise our clients not to work directly with Broadspire. Broadspire is only offering to pay patients’ medical costs that are out of pocket, meaning our clients’ personal insurance would pay most of the medical costs. Broadspire requires an agreement to give DePuy the faulty hip back which could potentially impair the right to pursue the case.
We do not allow DePuy unlimited access to our clients’ medical records without our knowledge and supervision nor will we allow them to take possession of the removed device without an agreement about its availability in the event it were later needed. This insures our clients’ right of privacy and that evidence related to our clients’ claim is properly maintained and accessible.
There are other types of hip cases that we handle but we are pleased to be involved in the DePuy settlement cases.
If you have any questions, we will be happy to answers them at no charge.
Buckle up and drive safely.
McCutcheon & Hamner, P.C.
2210 Helton Drive
Florence, Alabama 35630
Telephone: 256-764-0112
Facsimile: 256-764-1124
