A landmark medical negligence case over faulty hip replacements is getting underway, where 300 former patients as seeking personal injury compensation for their pain and suffering.
After they were left fitted with false joints developed by pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary, DePuy, many patients have been left with severe limitations to their mobility, according to accident claim experts familiar with the case. Now, approximately 300 patients injured by the device are seeking compensation for anywhere between £25,000 to as much as £1 million.
Rheumatoid arthritis suffer Stephen Ellis, one 57 year old patient from Liverpool who received the hip replacement, recounted how the metal joint began to poison his muscles and bones, resulting in black fluid draining from his hip. Like him, countless others have had to be rushed back to hospital for an additional hip replacement due to the initial defects in the part.
Mr Ellis began feeling sharp pains whenever he lifted his left leg following his original treatment in 2009. The pain grew so severe that after two years, the 57 year old claims he couldn’t even sit down, so he had a second surgical procedure this past August to correct the damage – and doctors reported that the fluid drained from the joint by surgeons was ‘black like dirt,’ with attending surgical specialists characterising the damage being so severe as to be a 10 out of 10.
Medical experts say that the metal fittings that comprised his hip replacement eroded much faster than they should have, leading to bone and muscle poisoning when they released microscopic metals into Mr Ellis’ body.