DuPuy Orthopedics and its parent company, Johnson & Johnson, are being sued by a Michiana woman for faulty prosthetic device. Teresa Consentino is claiming that the Agility Total Ankle System that was implanted in her left leg was defective and caused her significant pain.

In August of 2007, Cosentino underwent surgery consisting of an ankle arthoplasty with syndesmatic fusion. The surgery was to treat severe arthritis in her left ankle caused by a fracture.

Implantation of the Agility Total Ankle System was “unremarkable in the surgery itself and in the recovery, which was painful and slow, but not out of the ordinary,” according to court documents. After suffering through severe pain and swelling at the site of the prosthetic, Cosentino returned to the surgeon who implanted the device.

X-rays showed that arthroplasty had come loose, and there was little bone left between the prosthetic talar component and Consentino’s subtalar joint. On April 12, 2012, the prosthetic system was removed from Consentino’s leg, and she underwent left ankle fusion with allograft and subtalar fusion.

Consentino continued to experience pain in her left ankle after the surgery, and she recently required additional surgery to repair a screw dislocation, a result of the damage sustained from the defect of the Agility Total Ankle System. Furthermore, she claims to have experienced residual disability from the surgery, which includes aggravation of a shoulder condition due to the use of crutches.

In court documents, Cosentino claims that the Agility Total Ankle System was defectively designed, and that components of the prosthetic had not received federal Food and Drug Administration approval. Some of the metal components of the device are high conductors of heat and electricity, which was not made clear to Cosentino or her doctors prior to implantation.

While undergoing thermal and electrical therapy on June 30, 2010, Consentino was severely burned. She continues to suffer from effects of this incident.

Consentino and her husband, Vincent, are suing DePuy and Johnson & Johnson for negligence, breach of merchantibility and breach of express warranty. The Consentinos are seeking “a sum which will reasonably compensate them for their loss, for costs and all other proper relief.”