Pinnacle Lawsuit Filed by Washington Man

A Washington plaintiff has become the latest to file a DePuy lawsuit after he submitted his case on the 8^th of May 2012. Larry Vanyi is a resident of Washington state and allegedly experienced complications that will necessitate revision surgery after being implanted with the Pinnacle hip replacement device manufactured by DePuy Orthopedics. He is holding both the device manufacturer and the designer of the device, Dr. Thomas P. Schmalzreid, accountable for the side effects and complications he has experienced, including metallosis. The device he was fitted with, the Pinnacle hip replacement system, has not been the subject of a recal. A different DePuy device however, the DePuy ASR hip replacement system, was recalled in 2010.

Plaintiff experienced metallosis

Vanyi’s lawsuit, which was filed with the assistance of a DePuy hip attorney, claims that the plaintiff suffered a number of negative side effects of the use of the DePuy hip replacement system, including a high level of the metal cobalt in the blood, which can be caused by the use of a metal on metal hip replacement system such as the Pinnacle. The lawsuit goes on to say that Vanyi will eventually require revision surgery, a second procedure intended to fix problems associated with an implanted hip replacement system, but that this surgery could bring with it a risk of even more significant complications for the patient.

Although there are many similarities between this and a DePuy lawsuit, it is not quite the same. While the DePuy ASR device has been recalled, the Pinnacle hip replacement system is still on the market, although its metal-on-metal version is somewhat similar to the ASR device. One of the major points of many Pinnacle hip lawsuits is the fact that the device was never directly approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but was cleared through a loophole due to its substantial similarity with other devices already available.

Vanyi’s lawsuit also claims that device manufacturer DePuy knew or should have known about the complications associated with DePuy hip replacement systems and had a responsibility to warn patients more thoroughly about the potential for complications associated with the devices.

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