If a hip replacement failed because of the manufacturer’s or surgeon’s negligence, then you may be able to file a hip replacement lawsuit. Depending on the negligence, you can file a suit against the manufacturer for product liability or against the surgeon for medical malpractice. Many people find that a lawsuit is the only way to make up for additional surgeries, treatments, and medications that are needed.

Why file a lawsuit?

Many people will file lawsuits because they still experience pain after surgery. There are other reasons why people will file a hip replacement lawsuit. These include the device not being accompanied by adequate safety instructions, a patient requiring additional surgery that could have been avoided, the device is marked as safe when it’s not, and device loosening.

What qualifies as medical malpractice?

Medical malpractice is when a licensed medical professional drifts from what is the accepted standard of care in the field. If a medical professional, including a nurse, doctor, or anesthesiologist, committed these acts you could have some legal options: performed an unneeded surgery, offered a wrong diagnosis, discharged you too early, misread a critical lab result, didn’t diagnose a condition, or gave the wrong dosage or medication. You will need to prove negligence if you think you have a medical malpractice case. In the event of a hip replacement, there could be several mistakes. Was the surgery performed properly? Were their too many pins put in or not enough? Did the surgeon break the femur when adding it back into the socket?

What is negligence?

Proving negligence can be a bit challenging, and there needs to be four foundational elements that need to be established. These elements are duty, breach, injury, and damages.

Duty: The surgeon owes you a duty of care. This duty is that a surgeon is required to follow accepted medical practices that are standard in the field.

Breach: Once a duty of care is established, then a medical professional will need to exercise reasonable care and follow common procedures.

Injury: In order to prove negligence, you have to have an injury because of the surgeon’s actions.

Damages: Your lawyer will need to prove that you suffered damages from this injury. This can include economic or non-economic damages. This can be a lot of medical bills that you wouldn’t have without the breakdown of an implant or other error. Other costs can include missing work, lodging, and traveling. You may also have non-tangible costs that are significant, such as emotional distress or pain and suffering.

What about defective products?

In order to have a defective product lawsuit, it will need to be because of three reasons. These reasons are a failure to warn, design defects, or a manufacturing defect.