Vaginal Mesh Implant Victim Required Several Revisions
By John Curran
Peggy Douglas has now gone through three surgeries to fix a vaginal mesh implant failure, and unfortunately doctors say that she will likely need another. Since 2008, she has suffered from vaginal mesh side effects of erosion, including the perforation of her vaginal walls. She is suing Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Ethicon over the medical device’s failure.
While bladder sling implants that use synthetic material like polypropylene mesh were touted by companies like Ethicon as improvements over those that use biological material, some of those claims turned out to have made things worse. Synthetic materials enable these bladder sling and vaginal mesh implants to last longer, with minimum expectations of about five years. However, because they are much more difficult to repair, women like Ms. Douglas deal with worse bladder sling implant side effects.
Ethicon as well as other companies marketed vaginal mesh implants in spite of the fact that for many women polypropylene is incompatible with human tissue. It makes the vaginal mesh implant failure more likely because the tissue becomes inflamed. Similar to wooden pieces in a building built during the winter, tissue expands and impinges on the device. In Douglas’ case, it led to extreme abdominal pain.
The perforation caused by the bladder sling implant actually occurred in between the second and third procedures. This is not uncommon as many doctors have noted that on average four procedures are required to fix all problems caused by vaginal mesh implants. In some cases, however, vaginal sling implant side effects are never completely fixed. Researchers note that the rate for similar surgeries with biological material is substantially lower.
There have been no recalls issued for bladder sling implants, and what is worse, according to some bladder sling implant failure lawsuit lawyers, is that men can also require these types of implants. They are more likely to be unaware of the problems, given the higher usage among women.
Unfortunately, the warning from the federal Food and Drug Administration about the lack of improvement over biological implants came too late for many women. If you or someone you know has dealt with vaginal sling implant side effects, get educated. Visit the Transvaginal Mesh, Vaginal Sling, Vaginal Mesh and Bladder Sling Class Action Lawsuit Investigation now to learn more about what legal options are available.
Filling out the short form there entitles one to a free consultation with a bladder sling implant failure lawyer. It is the first step towards getting the jury award or settlement from the manufacturer that the case merits.
Updated January 8th, 2013
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