$2 Million Verdict Against Zimmer in First Kinectiv Hip Implant Trial
A New Mexico judge awarded Michael Brian McDonald $2,027,424.91 after finding that Zimmer's dual-modular Kinectiv hip implant shed metal debris into his bloodstream, causing metallosis and forcing two revision surgeries.
What happened
Michael Brian McDonald, an economist at the University of New Mexico, had a Zimmer M/L Taper Hip Prosthesis with Kinectiv Technology implanted in June 2010. The device paired a cobalt-chromium femoral head with a titanium neck and stem. In May 2011, McDonald began experiencing hip and groin pain and loss of flexibility. By October 2011, surgeons had performed the first of two revision operations that fall to address the damage.
Testing showed elevated cobalt levels in McDonald's blood. The metal-on-metal junction between the device's components had generated debris that migrated into surrounding tissue, a condition known as metallosis. The contamination posed an ongoing infection risk, and McDonald faced a third surgery to address continued complications. His physicians expected him to require lifelong antibiotic therapy.
The case went to a bench trial before Judge Nan G. Nash in Bernalillo County in December 2016. Randi McGinn and Allegra Carpenter of what was then McGinn, Carpenter, Montoya and Love, P.A., tried the case alongside Joseph Osborne Jr. of Osborne and Francis in Boca Raton, Florida. The plaintiff's theory was strict product liability: the MLTK system's design created an unreasonable risk of metal corrosion regardless of warnings.
Judge Nash agreed. In a 27-page decision issued March 31, 2017, she found that Zimmer had failed to conduct adequate testing before bringing the device to market and that the resulting metallosis was 'not an acceptable risk of harm.' She rejected claims for failure to warn, negligence, breach of warranty, and punitive damages, limiting the award to strict liability on design defect.
The final judgment totaled $2,027,424.91, broken down as $1,000,000 for past and future pain and suffering, $480,000 for lost enjoyment of life, and $462,034.91 in medical expenses. Zimmer had sold approximately 148,000 MLTK devices nationwide since 2007. The case was reported to be the first Kinectiv hip implant lawsuit to reach a trial verdict.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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