Stryker Orthopaedics is being sued by at least 80 people in New Jersey, and faces hundreds of other lawsuits, over a defective hip-implant device that it recalled from the market, according to The Record in New Jersey.
Lawyers from around the country have told a judge in Bergen County, N.J., that they plan to sue Stryker, which is based in Mahwah, N.J. According to The Record, the hip replacement case may end being one of the largest mass-tort litigations in the nation.
Stryker voluntarily recalled its Rejuvenate device in July 2012. Patients who had the implant sustained muscle, bone and nerve damage when metal bits from part of the device went into their blood stream and tissue, The Record reported.
A Florida woman, 66, was the first one to file suit against Stryker, which was last summer. She had a right-hip replacement with Stryker’s Rejuvenate, after being told it would last for decades. Instead, the woman had severe pain from the device and had to have several subsequent surgeries, according to The Record.
One lawyer told the judge in Hackensack, N.J., that she had already lodged 30 suits on behalf of clients against Stryker and that she had another 150 hip-replacement clients that will also be suing, The Record reported.
Stryker told the newspaper that it has been reimbursing patients for treatment and revision surgery related to the voluntary recall.
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