A judge in Australia has approved a settlement of DePuy knee replacement compensation following a class action suit brought following the recall of the DePuy LCS Duofix Femoral implants.
More than 5,000 DePuy LCS Duofix Femoral implants were implanted in patients in Australia prior to the recall in July 2009 due to a higher than expected failure rate. In March 2010, Pamela Casey became the lead plaintiff in a class action suit against DePuy seeking DePuy knee replacement compensation and, on 29 August 2012, a provisional settlement of the DePuy knee replacement class action was agreed.
Under the terms of the provisional agreement, DePuy are to pay plaintiffs who underwent one revision to the faulty knee implant but required no further surgery A$30,000. Plaintiffs who needed two or more surgical procedures after their initial revision surgery will be paid A$65,000, and plaintiffs who have suffered significant complications due to the faulty knee implants will have their claims for DePuy knee replacement compensation assessed on an individual basis.
At the Federal Court in Melbourne, Justice Robert Buchanan formally approved the compensation settlement following a review period during which he received 430 inquiries into the proposed DePuy compensation agreement. He said that the few complaints about the settlement he received during the review period did not give him sufficient reason to delay from approving the DePuy knee replacement compensation class action agreement.
Further class action suits against DePuy are ongoing in respect of the recalled DePuy ASR hip replacement systems.