$3.27 Million Transvaginal Mesh Victory Gets Attention Abroad

Published on September 9, 2014 by Sandy Liebhard

A woman’s recent transvaginal mesh victory in a case against Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon is making waves outside the U.S., especially in Scotland, where a campaign to ban the implants continues to gain more supporters, according to the Daily Record.

The United Kingdom publication commented recently on a $3.27 million victory reached September 5th in the Southern District of West Virginia, where a woman and her husband won arguments over Ethicon’s TVT-O device. Jurors in the state found the company liable for damages allegedly incurred by the plaintiff’s injuries, which she was not adequately warned about by her doctor. According to the report, $2.5 million of the damage award involved compensation for the disability, pain, suffering and anguish the defective implant allegedly caused her. The remaining $175,000 was paid to the woman’s husband for damages resulting in his loss of relationship with her.

A campaigner for the Scottish Mesh Survivors said this victory is important to transvaginal mesh lawsuit claims now filed in her home country.

“This ruling is of huge significance because so many women in Scotland were fitted with this device,” she said.

According to Ethicon’s director of communications, the company plans to try and appeal the verdict.

“Ethicon’s TVT-O mid­urethral sling was properly designed and Ethicon acted appropriately and r­esponsibly in the research, development and marketing of the product. We have always made patient safety a top priority and will continue to do so,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

The Daily Record report states that over 400 women in Scotland have filed vaginal mesh lawsuits against the National Health Service and medical device manufacturers. Vaginal mesh procedures have also been suspended in the country pending further review from regulators.

Ethicon Lawsuits Mount in the U.S., Scotland

In the U.S., Ethicon mesh lawsuits are continuing to be filed in federal and state courts. A federal litigation underway in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of West Virginia now includes more than 19,380 cases, court records indicate, while more than 7,000 additional claims are now pending in New Jersey’s Atlantic County. Women in these cases similarly blame Johnson & Johnson and Ethicon for injuries they failed to warn the public about in their marketing of the mesh devices, which were designed defectively.

Prior to the September verdict, a jury in Texas federal court awarded $1 million to a woman who received a defective TVT-O mesh sling, which she received to treat incontinence.