Just about daily, more transvaginal lawsuits are filed across the nation.
The suits being filed daily are the tip of the iceberg. The massive number of complainants has prompted the judicial system to pull everything together under one umbrella; a situation referred to as mass tort litigation or multidistrict litigations. Given the number of cases and the serious injuries involved, not to mention the length of time it would take to get all the cases to trial, due to preparation time, a U.S. district judge announced that the first five bellwether trials involve defendants American Medical Systems (MDL 2325), Boston Scientific (MDL 2326), Ethicon (MDL 2327), Coloplast (MDL 2387) and C. R. Bard (MDL 2187).
Transvaginal surgical mesh, or slings, are used in the treatment of pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence. The idea, in general, is to keep organs that are collapsing into the vaginal area in place where they are supposed to belong.
While bellwether cases typically set the trend for all other cases of a similar nature, that does not always strictly apply, as each case is based on its circumstances. For instance one California case that made it to court in July 2012, resulted in a jury verdict for $5.5 million in damages as a direct result of the Avaulta Plus sling. The early cases were thought to be an anomaly, until clear across the nation, more and more of them kept coming up. By then, patients knew they had a serious issue on their hands, and that their case was not just an isolated incident.
Almost 300,000 women were operated on in 2010 for transvaginal mesh implants, based on the glowing reports that this low risk new device would make their lives easier. That turned out to be a major fallacy, and by July 2011, the Food and Drug Administration was issuing a public warning about the slings. It seemed that just about 10 percent of the women who had this type of corrective surgery experienced devastating complications within the first year. Things went downhill from there.
What was hailed as an amazing system to help women, turned out to have the capability to severely injure them as a result of the mesh eroding into the vaginal walls, or other internal organs. The mesh also had a nasty habit of creeping out of place or protruding into the vaginal canal. The out of place mesh ended up perforating bowels, pelvic organs and blood vessels, created abdominal pressure, extreme pain and difficulty when moving, a recurrence of pelvic prolapsed, infections, bleeding, scarring, discharge, vagina shortening and urinary incontinence.
In short, women with the implants discovered that their daily living activities, such as walking, sitting, running, climbing stairs and having intercourse, became a nightmare of pain. They then discovered there was no way to correct the problem, other than a series of more operations that still did not always completely remove the mesh.
If you have had a sling implanted, and are having problems, contact an experienced Austin personal injury lawyer for help. They will make sure you get justice.
Bobby Lee is an Austin personal injury lawyer for Lee, Gober and Reyna. If you need an Austin personal injury lawyer, contact an Austin personal injury attorney from Lee, Gober and Reyna. Visit RWLeelaw.com.
