Victims Of Transvaginal Mesh Can Get Justice
Victims of transvaginal mesh can get justice
Eight transvaginal mesh manufacturers are paying the price for harming thousands of women. They include C.R. Baird, Johnson & Johnson, American Medical Systems, Coloplast, Coviden, Caldera, Tyco and Boston Scientific. On February 6, 2018, Boston Scientific was ordered to pay $4 million to women who suffered complications caused by its transvaginal mesh after the Fourth Circuit of Appeals in West Virginia upheld a jury verdict in four consolidated products liability cases. In 2015, Reuters reported a Delaware jury ordered Boston Scientific to pay $100 million to a victim in another lawsuit.
The companies, except for Johnson & Johnson, were working toward legal settlements with victims in 2015. By then, 800,000 lawsuits had been filed against them. Women around the world have been hurt by the vaginal mesh implants. In 2017, 450 women in Australia sued Johnson & Johnson and 300 more filed suits against American Medical Systems. In England, 800 women sued transvaginal mesh manufacturers. Australia and New Zealand banned the use of transvaginal mesh implants for pelvic organ prolapse (POP) in 2017.
How such a dangerous product get on the market?
In 2017, The National Center for Biotechnology Information, The National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health reviewed the use of transvaginal mesh for pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and concluded it was introduced in 2005 “without clinical safety and efficacy data.” A 2016 story in STAT News about the FDA’s rules regulating medical devices revealed they “were enacted 50 years ago” and were based solely on “cost and benefit.”
In January 2018, the FDA issued a safety alert advising doctors that “most cases of pelvic organ prolapse” (POP) can be successfully treated without using transvaginal mesh. But it wasn’t until January 2016, that the FDA reclassified the mesh, changing it from a Class II device with moderate risk, to a high risk Class III device, according to STAT News.
Transvaginal mesh injuries can be permanent and severe
A major article in Consumer Reports in 2012 warned readers against transvaginal mesh implants. It told the story of a Texas woman with POP who had a transvaginal mesh patch implanted in 2007. It “shrank and shifted” and eventually “worked its way out of the vaginal wall” causing acute pain for months She had to have eight surgeries to adjust, and then, remove the mesh.
Between 2008 and 2010, seven deaths were associated with POP mesh repairs, according to the FDA. Mesh implants cause infections, urinary problems, bleeding, organ perforation, neuromuscular problems and vaginal scarring. Surgery is the only answer in many cases.
Anyone injured by a product of any kind should contact Personal Injury Attorney Wyatt Wright
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