Is Stryker Preventing Rejuvenate and ABG II Patients from Obtaining Proper Medical Care to Avoid Responsibility?

In July 2012, Stryker recalled its Rejuvenate and ABG II hip implants. At the time of the recall, Stryker penned a letter for doctors to send to patients. In that letter, Stryker told patients that if they had no symptoms, they could simply follow their doctors typical post-operative follow up schedule. For many asymptomatic patients who received this notice, they were far enough removed from their surgery that their doctors had already released them. According to Stryker asymptomatic patients didn’t need to return to their doctors even though a defective, recalled implant was in their hip.

At the same time Stryker was doing damage control with doctors who had been duped into using Stryker’s new device. Doctors were promised by Stryker that they would “make this right” with the patients and they would be paying for work up and revision surgery so the patients would not have to bear the financial burden. Well, that turns out not to be true. I represent one woman who underwent revision surgery over three months ago. She made a claim. Stryker is still telling her that they are, “collecting records.” Several other clients have related similar stories. To date, Stryker has not paid a single penny to one of my clients and I have well over 200.

In addition, I have been told that many, many surgeons who implanted these devices have let Stryker know how angry they are with the company for not following through on its promise to take care of these patients. Their patients are not getting any money from Stryker either. One told me he is not going to use Stryker products any more because of this.

Cobalt chromium powder

I have written before and I will repeat how sad and concerning it is to speak to victim after victim who are in pain and have elevated cobalt in their body but they simply can’t afford further work up let alone revision surgery. I have spoken with victims who lost professional careers, homes, apartments, transportation and beloved hobbies because of this hip. Many of these people want the poisonous hip out of them but they either don’t have the money or can’t afford the time off work or both.

The question becomes, why would a mutli-billion dollar company refuse to pay victims for work up and for necessary revision surgery after having promised its customers (doctors) that it was going to do so? Stryker can afford it. Refusing to do so is irritating doctors who use its products.

One possible explanation concerns me greatly. When you consider both Stryker’s having told asymptomatic patients they didn’t need to see the doctor and the fact it is refusing to help patients obtain necessary work up, diagnosis and revision it seems possible Stryker is attempting to dodge legal responsibility for its defective, recalled product.

The time frame in which a product defect victim must file a claim varies from state to state but it can be as little as one year. Many states trigger the running of the limitations period from the date the patient is “injured.” So for many Rejuvenate and ABG II victims the clock is ticking. Is it possible that Stryker is telling patients they don’t need to see the doctor and refusing payment knowing many can’t afford to pay themselves so that victims’ cases will be time barred?

Could a victim’s case end up time barred before they even know they have a case? The answer is yes in some states. This is especially true since most patients have been told about the recall.

What I learned from more than one surgeon who is taking care of Rejuvenate and ABG II victims is that many asymptomatic patients actually have elevated cobalt and evidence of tissue necrosis or fluid formation on MRI scan. These doctors ignored Stryker’s advice and actually called all of their patients back in for baseline testing even the ones with no symptoms. . Even though this group of patients doesn’t have pain, their hip implant is causing very serious problems and some patients don’t even know it. How dangerous is Stryker’s advice that these patients don’t even need to see a doctor?

Add to that group of patients those who are in pain but can’t afford the very expensive tests necessary to find out if they are being poisoned. A lot of people are not in a position to shell out thousands of dollars for medical tests let alone for revision surgery. Not very many people can afford to take eight weeks off work on top of the expense. So, that group is simply left to live in pain with no firm answer as to the cause of their pain. It also forces these folks to pursue legal action before they know exactly what their medical condition is.

Yesterday I spoke with a new client. She’s a single mother with two middle school children. According to her, she lives paycheck to paycheck and she’s still “paying off” her January 2012 implant surgery. Even though she has insurance through her employer she can’t pay the copays to have the revision surgery her doctor says she needs right away. She said she’s going to have to “sell something” to raise the money and her boys are not going to have any Christmas. She’s also worried that if she misses another eight weeks off work she might lose her job.

If Stryker is putting these patients through this misery in the hopes that some will fail to file their cases on time that is simply sickening.