After five years of legal battles, C.R. Bard is settling nearly 3,000 vaginal mesh lawsuits for $200 million.

These Bard vaginal mesh lawsuits were filed by women who were allegedly injured after being implanted with the company’s bladder sling (or vaginal sling)  products to treat pelvic organ prolapse or urinary incontinence.

C.R. Bard filed a document with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissions (SEC), indicating the vaginal mesh manufacturer reached settlements in about 1,300 pelvic mesh cases in June and an additional 1,500 vaginal mesh cases in July. According to news reports, Bard will pay over $200 million to resolve at least 3,000 vaginal mesh lawsuits.

The company’s SEC filing also states that Bard has been ordered by the court to prepare a large group of cases for trial in case a broader vaginal mesh settlement is not reached. Bard indicated it is continuing negotiations, but still anticipates that at least two consolidated trials involving multiple vaginal mesh allegations will go to trial before the end of the year.

Vaginal Mesh Litigation

Bard is just one of several vaginal mesh manufacturers facing 70,000 transvaginal mesh lawsuits. About 15,000 specifically involve claims against Bard-manufactured bladder sling products. Other manufacturers involved in vaginal mesh litigation include:

• Ethicon
• Boston Scientific
• American Medical Systems (AMS)
• Coloplast
• Cook Medical
• Neomedic

Vaginal Mesh Side Effect Claims

Vaginal mesh lawsuits similarly allege that women who used a vaginal mesh product to treat stress urinary incontinence or repair pelvic organ prolapse suffered painful, and sometimes permanent,  complications.

Some vaginal mesh side effects include:

• Pain during sex
• Urinary problems
• Multiple occurrences of pelvic organ prolapse
• Vaginal scarring
• Perforated bladder, bowel, or blood vessels
• Mesh erosion
• Infection
• Organ injuries

Many of these cases of vaginal mesh injury have required the medical device to be surgically removed. That did not always prevent side effects from becoming permanent.

Some individual vaginal mesh lawsuits have gone to trial and have resulted in multimillion dollar jury awards. Many of these awards include punitive damages against the medical device manufacturer as punishment for promotion or sales of the allegedly defective transvaginal mesh product.

Despite the cost of having to litigate these vaginal mesh cases individually, most manufacturers have yet to negotiate large scale vaginal mesh settlements. So far, only Endo International has done so. In October 2014, the company announced its intention to pay $1.6 billion to resolve personal injury claims in 20,000 bladder sling lawsuits involving its AMS medical devices.