Who’s Accountable For Faulty New Mexico Medical Devices?

A recent New York Times article posed the following question:

Who should be accountable when a company sells a flawed product that can injure or kill patients? Is it the company or the people who run it?

We believe it’s both.

We have seen hundreds of individuals throughout New Mexico who have had surgery, only to sustain injuries as the result of a physician implanting a defective product such as the Zimmer Durom Cup. Many parties may be responsible in such cases – including the company, the executives running the company, and even the physicians.

However, those people who are not responsible and must be compensated are the innocent patients who seek medical attention to improve their condition, only to sustain further injury.

In 2006, the Zimmer Durom Cup was introduced and intended to be an improvement over previous hip replacement products. However, rather than being an improvement, it caused significant pain and discomfort, as well as a loosening of the hip implants, requiring additional surgeries.

The use of defective Zimmer Durom Cups in hip replacement surgeries has led to dozens of lawsuits cropping up all around the country. Currently, at least 51 product liability lawsuits in 10 different states are currently pending against the Zimmer Durum Cup, a defective part that implanted during hip replacement surgery.

Sales of the Durom Cup were suspended in July 2008, but only after thousands of the defective devices were implanted in hip replacement patients.

As New Mexico personal injury attorneys concerned about the safety of medical devices, we believe that all those responsible for injuring patients – including, corporations who make defective devices, individual executives who agree to sell faulty products, and physicians who knowingly implant defective products – must be held accountable.