What If Your Artificial Hip Is Defective?

In most instances, hip replacement surgeries are successful. However, defective artificial hip parts can lead to complications. If you believe that your hip replacement surgery has led to complications, here is what you need to know.

What Complications Can Occur?

Ideally, following a hip replacement and recovery period, you will not experience any pain or other symptoms. However, if the artificial hip is defective, you can sometimes experience painful complications that can have an adverse impact on your life.

Outside of the possibility of experiencing pain, you can also develop a metallosis. Metallosis occurs when the metal that is used to build the artificial hip starts to corrode. When this happens, the muscle and tissue that is adjacent to the hip can start to break down. In addition to suffering constant pain, the implant can completely fail, which would lead to the removal of the device.

Other complications include infection, skin irritation, thyroid problems, and visual impairment. Without treatment, the metal poisoning can continue to spread throughout your body.

What Can You Do?

You have various options available to you. If you believe that you have a defective artificial hip, you need to be diagnosed by your doctor. It is important that you are treated as soon as possible to prevent further complications.

Depending on the particular device, you might be able to file a malpractice claim against the surgeon who implanted the device. If there was a recall on the device at the time of your surgery, he or she had an obligation to not use the defective implant.

You can also file a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the part. Your personal injury attorney can help to determine if there are any pending lawsuits against the manufacturer for the defective implant. If so, a claims process might already be in place. If there is an established process, you and your attorney will need to follow the steps outlined by the manufacturer to receive compensation for damages you experienced.

However, if there is no claims process, you can proceed with your defective product claim. You will need to prove that the part was defective and that it led to complications. Your attorney will more than likely rely on a medical expert to help prove that you did suffer complications.

To further assess your chances of receiving compensation for a defective hip replacement, discuss the details of your case with your personal injury attorney. To avoid exceeding the statute of limitations for personal injury cases in your state, take action immediately.