Hip implant.Photo:Getty Images
Getty Images
According to a lawsuit Little would later file against the manufacturer, the device “suddenly and catastrophically structurally failed."
After incidents like these, metal from the broken implants then get embedded in the bone, causing the patient to undergo a painful surgical repair that involves opening up the bone, the outlet reported.
Cases like Little’s — where the neck snapped — prompted arecall of some sizes of the device in 2020, according to the Food and Drug Administration. However, CBS News and KFF Health News reported that other sizes of the Profemur implant “have not been permanently recalled.”
According to CBS News and KFF Health News, which partnered to investigate cases involving failed implants, there have been “180 lawsuits filed in federal court in the past decade alleging Profemur modular necks broke or corroded.”
Per the investigation, CBS News and KFF Health News learned that most of the lawsuits were resolved out of court with Wright Medical or MicroPort, which bought its hip and knee implant division in 2013, not having to publicly admit fault.
“Wright Medical has denied liability in some lawsuits before settling them and has defended Profemur implants in court in the years before some of the implants were recalled for fracturing,” the outlet reported.
PEOPLE has reached out to Wright Medical Technology, Inc. for comment.
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Little, who developed arthritis in his 30s, recalled to CBS News and KFF Health News how he was told the Profemur was made for “people just like myself who are young, athletic.”
However, four years after his first Profemur hip implant break, Little suffered a second break in his left hip, “according to his lawsuit, in which Wright Medical denied liability and settled out of court,” CBS News and KFF Health News reported.
“I’ve been robbed of some things,” Little, who told the outlet that his injuries are prompting him to retire four years ahead of schedule, said. “There should be accountability for it.”
Little’s replacement surgery is increasingly common as the population ages, according to theAmerican College of Rheumatology. More than 450,000 undergo hip replacement surgery annually — and that includes stars likeAlec Baldwin,Kris JennerandChristie Brinkley.
“During a hip replacement, the surgeon makes an incision over the thigh and removes the diseased or damaged bone and cartilage from the hip joint,” theNational Institute of Healthexplains, adding that those parts are replaced with new, artificial parts.
source: people.com
