Florida resident sues over allegedly faulty hip replacement

A woman who had to have a new hip implant replaced after her first implant failed is suing the first implant's maker for negligence and misrepresentation.

According to a lawsuit filed March 11 in St. Clair County Circuit Court, Brenda Faciane filed a complaint against Biomet Inc. and Biomet Orthopedics LLC, both of Indiana.

The defendants are the makers of nationally marketed and sold hip replacement devices known as the M2a 38 and M2a Magnum.
On Jan. 18, 2011, Faciane was implanted with the M2a Magnum, but the device allegedly failed, causing Faciane to have another surgery to fix the problem on Nov. 6, 2012, the suit states.

As a result of having the M2a Magnum implanted, the plaintiff alleges she underwent pain and suffering, lack of mobility, inflammation, metallosis, damage or death to surrounding tissue and bone and a more difficult revision surgery to replace the faulty device, which allegedly led to more debilitation, a long recovery period and an increased risk of death.
According to the lawsuit, "Biomet sold the M2a Magnum hip implant to (the) plaintiff after it knew it was defective, that it had injured others and that it would injure (the) plaintiff."

The lawsuit also alleges that Biomet made "several false representations about specific design elements of the M2a Magnum Hip System that they claimed made it superior to other (indeed safer) hip implants on the market."

The plaintiff, citing a failure to warn, fraudulent concealment, fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of express warranty, negligence and breach of implied warranties, seeks in excess of $450,000, plus costs.

Faciane is represented by John J. Driscoll and Gregory J. Pals of the Driscoll Firm PC in St. Louis.

St. Clair County Circuit Court case number 15-L-137