CA Lawsuit Claims Biomet Misleading with False Info
(Sacramento, CA – November 23, 2018) Three California residents filed a lawsuit in Sacramento County Court against Biomet Orthopaedics. The suit says that Biomet sold defective Magnum metal on metal hip replacements to these patients, who all experienced heavy metal poisoning which destroyed muscle, tissue, and bone in their bodies. The lawsuit also details how Biomet has posted false and misleading data on its website to reassure surgeons and patients that there’s nothing wrong with the Magnum implant, even though evidence exists that Biomet Magnum hips have serious problems.
The Patient’s Stories
In 2007 surgeons implanted two Biomet Magnum hip replacements in Denise Derosa. Since then, the Magnum implants have silently released poisonous metals into her body, killing the muscle, ligaments, and bone around her hip joint. Surgeries to remove the implants have not worked because of the extensive damage caused by the Biomet Magnum. Today Ms. Derosa’s hips frequently dislocate from their sockets and she’s gone through many painful surgical procedures to put the hip sockets back in place.
Robert Greenlee underwent two Biomet Magnum hip replacement surgeries in 2008. The Magnum hips poisoned him by releasing extreme levels of toxic cobalt and chromium metals into his bloodstream. Mr. Greenlee now needs to go through excruciating surgeries to remove and replace both Biomet Magnum hips.
John Woods got his Biomet Magnum hip replacement implants in 2011. They were supposed to last a lifetime, but seven years later Mr. Woods had hip surgery once again, this time to replace the toxic Magnum hips. The heavy metal poisoning from the metal on metal implants triggered a cascade of severe medical problems including dead tissue, necrotic muscle, and dead bone in and around his hip joint.
Inaccurate and Outdated Information Still Posted on Biomet’s Website
The Sacramento, California complaint states that Biomet has posted false information on their website meant to reassure surgeons and patients about the safety of Magnum metal on metal hip implants. The webpage is filled with tables showing how well the Magnum hips have performed compared to other hips. Biomet posted this “letter to surgeons” online in 2012 and has kept it online and discoverable with a simple search ever since.
The three California plaintiffs allege that this online information is misleading. Biomet cites data from joint registries in Australia and England showing better than average revision rates for the Magnum. Since the time this letter was published, both the Australian Joint Registry and the England and Wales Joint Registry have uncovered much higher than normal revision rates for the Biomet Magnum hips. In fact, the Biomet Magnum Hip was essentially recalled in Australia with the release of an official Hazard Alert about the Biomet Magnum implant in 2015.
The Lawsuits Against Zimmer Biomet
Mctlaw is leading the U.S. litigation against Zimmer Biomet with clients across the entire United States. The firm has filed lawsuits in San Francisco, Seattle, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, and Missouri, with more filings pending across the country. The case filed in Sacramento is Derosa vs. Biomet Inc., Case Number 34-2018-00244214.
About mctlaw
Mctlaw is a national medical product liability law firm with offices in Seattle, WA, Washington, DC, and Sarasota, FL. Mctlaw filed the first metal on metal (MoM) hip replacement lawsuit in the United States in 2008 and has been continuously litigating metal on metal hip replacement cases ever since. The Firm is representing patients across the United States who have suffered the effects of heavy metal poisoning from Biomet M2a-38 and M2a-Magnum hip replacements.
