C.R. Bard Hit with Another Hernia Mesh Lawsuit, After Louisiana Man Undergoes Multiple Revision Surgeries

Published on December 27, 2017 by Sandy Liebhard

A Louisiana man has filed a new hernia mesh lawsuit against C.R. Bard, Inc. and its Davol, Inc. subsidiary, after he was forced to undergo multiple revision surgeries due to infections and other  complications allegedly caused by the companies’ Monofilament Knitted Polypropylene Mesh device.

Plaintiff Has Never Fully Recovered from Bard Hernia Mesh Complications

According to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, Randy A. Roberts, Sr. received the Bard hernia mesh implant in January 2006 to repair an incisional hernia. He returned to the hospital in May 2017, after experiencing increasing pain, swelling and discomfort in the abdomen. At that time, Roberts was diagnosed with an abdominal wall abscess in the umbilical hernia sac. (Case 2:17-cv-13657)

Additional surgery revealed that Roberts’ hernia mesh had become contaminated with bacteria. Unfortunately,his doctors were only able to remove a portion of the device, as the implant had become embedded in his body. Roberts’ was subsequently informed that he faced a substantially increased risk of hernia recurrence because of the inability to remove all of the mesh.

In August 2015, Roberts’ doctors confirmed that the remaining hernia mesh had also become infected. Because the infection was resistant to antibiotics, they again attempted to remove the remainder of the implant. During that surgery, it was discovered that Roberts had developed a fistula. While his doctors believe that all remaining mesh been removed during the procedure, they could not be certain because of how deeply the device had become embedded in Roberts’ body.

“Prior to these three (3) surgeries, Plaintiff, Randy A. Roberts, Sr., was a healthy 35-year-old man and owner of a thriving granite installation business,” the complaint states.

“Plaintiff, Randy A. Roberts, Sr., has never fully recovered from the surgeries, still experiences increasing pain and discomfort, and will likely undergo subsequent surgery(ies) in the future, “the lawsuit continues.

C.R. Bard, Ethicon, & Atrium Medical Face Growing Hernia Mesh Litigation

Roberts is just one of the most recent hernia mesh recipients to file suit against a medical device manufacturer. In fact, C.R. Bard is facing a growing number of personal injury claims involving its hernia implants, including the Marlex, Ventralight ST and Ventralex products.

Johnson & Johnson and its Ethicon, Inc. subsidiary have been named defendants in dozens of Physiomesh hernia lawsuits, following a worldwide market withdrawal of certain Physiomesh Flexible Composite mesh implants in March 2016. The majority of those claims have been centralized in a multidistrict litigation now underway in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia.

A multidistrict litigation has also been established in the U.S. District Court, District of New Hampshire, for injury claims involving Atrium Medical’s C-Qur hernia mesh implant.