$3.5 Million Verdict: Jury rules in favor of plaintiffs in Ethicon pelvic mesh lawsuit
On Feb. 25, 2013, after five days of deliberation, a New Jersey jury awarded $3.5 million in compensatory damages to the plaintiffs in a transvaginal/pelvic mesh lawsuit against pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson.
According to a Bloomberg report, the jury found the manufacturer's Ethicon unit "failed to properly warn of the risks of a vaginal mesh implant and made fraudulent misrepresentations" to the implanting surgeon. This was the first verdict in the more than 2,100 lawsuits filed due to alleged problems with Ethicon's Gynecare Prolift device. The plaintiffs, a 47-year-old South Dakota nurse and her husband, sued after she endured 18 operations after the mesh was implanted. She must take more than 20 prescription medications to help treat the associated medical complications and pain.
Between 2005 and 2010, nearly 4,000 injuries were reported to the FDA in connection with a transvaginal/pelvic mesh device. In August 2012, Ethicon voluntarily recalled four Pelvic Floor Repair Systems in the United States, discontinuing or changing its marketing materials and revising product labeling to limit the use of certain products to abdominal procedures. Ethicon also asked the FDA to allow it 120 days to stop commercialization, notify customers and let hospitals and physicians choose alternative patient treatments. Motley Rice represents clients in more than 100 filed cases naming Ethicon as a defendant.
The case is Gross v. Gynecare Inc., Atl-L-6966-10, Superior Court of Atlantic County, New Jersey (Atlantic City). Although Motley Rice did not represent the plaintiffs in this case, Motley Rice attorneys hold leadership roles in pelvic mesh cases filed in state and federal courts, representing hundreds of clients in transvaginal mesh lawsuits against manufacturers that include Boston Scientific, American Medical Systems, Inc. (AMS), C.R. Bard, Inc., and Johnson & Johnson.
Read the full article on Bloomberg.
In addition to representing patients in pelvic mesh lawsuits, Motley Rice attorneys represent patients allegedly harmed by other medical devices such as DePuy® hip implants. Learn more about how our medical lawyers fight for people hurt by pharmaceutical drugs and medical devices and work to hold accountable those responsible for negligent medical care, corporate wrongdoing, and inadequate warning, research and testing.