Wright Medical owes $4.5m in 1st hip implant trial

(Reuters) — Jurors in a California state court last week awarded $4.5 million to plaintiffs in the first of several dozen lawsuits over Wright Medical‘s (NSDQ:WMGI) Profemur R metal-on-metal hip implant to go to trial, finding that the device was defectively made.

Following a nearly 2-week trial in Los Angeles Superior Court, the jury found Memphis-based Wright  liable for a manufacturing defect in the Profemur R device implanted in plaintiff Alan Warner. Wright was cleared of liability on a separate claim that the Profemur R was defectively designed.

The jury awarded $2.5 million for pain, suffering and loss of consortium, plus another $2 million for past pain and suffering, according to Mealey’s.

Warner was implanted witht he ProFemur R device after his original hip replacement failed. He claimed in the lawsuit that the device’s femur stem broke at a laser-etched proximity mark; Wright argued that Warner suffered from poor bone quality, citing his original hip fracture and the failure of his 1st device.  The company also said that the fracture occurred because of poor “fit and fill” for the stem, due to the failure of the implanting physician to assure proximate fixation, causing the stem to move back and forth and fracture, the website reported.

In August 2012, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee requested records relating to the Profemur suite of metal hip implants for a period of more than 10 years. The company said in April that it’s continuing to respond to the subpoena.

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