A woman from North Carolina has joined thousands of others alleging unacceptable complications associated with their transvaginal mesh implant.

Plaintiff Wanda C. says that in June 2011 she was implanted with a TVT-Obturator sling manufactured by defendant Ethicon Inc. She is now filing a transvaginal mesh lawsuit against Ethicon and its parent company Johnson & Johnson, alleging she suffered transvaginal mesh side effects that went beyond what she was led to expect.

Wanda’s transvaginal mesh lawsuit includes a claim for loss of consortium, brought by her husband William. Spouses in William’s position can sometimes bring a claim for loss of consortium to get compensation for the effects of the alleged harm on their marital relationship – this includes effects such as loss of intimacy, company, or sexual relations.

The Ethicon Transvaginal Mesh MDL

According to Ethicon’s website, the TVT-Obturator is a “transobturator mid-urethral sling used for the treatment of female stress urinary incontinence.”

It’s one of several different slings and transvaginal meshes at issue in the Ethicon multidistrict litigation, or MDL, going on in federal court in West Virginia. This MDL is a consolidation of thousands of individual transvaginal mesh lawsuits, brought together in a single court in the interest of coordinating pretrial procedures.

Generally, the plaintiffs allege their transvaginal mesh side effects resulted from the defective nature of Ethicon’s products. They say Ethicon and J&J failed to properly warn them that transvaginal mesh products could erode, move out of place, cause harmful inflammatory reactions, or require corrective surgery for adjustment or removal.

Johnson & Johnson continues to face over 46,000 similar transvaginal mesh lawsuit over its vaginal sling and transvaginal mesh products, according to the company’s regulatory filings. In addition to the MDL in West Virginia, about 8,700 claims have been filed in New Jersey, the home state of J&J.

Million-Dollar Settlement Revealed

Following mixed results in the few of these claims that have gone to trial, J&J has begun settling many others. The company has avoided revealing how much money it has set aside to settle these claims, and it has kept confidential the terms of some settlements it has already entered into.

However, one settlement that was supposed to remain confidential was recently revealed to be worth $5 million, giving other plaintiffs a glimpse at what sort of compensation they may be able to expect in their own lawsuits.

The settlement’s terms became part of the public record when the plaintiff’s attorney sought payment of his fees. In that case, the plaintiff had alleged that her Ethicon transvaginal mesh had degraded inside her, caused sex to be painful, and required several surgeries before it could finally be removed.

J&J may have been compelled to settle the transvaginal mesh lawsuit after the issue of two significantly larger jury awards. The first case to go to trial in New Jersey ended with an $11.1 million jury award, which was upheld on appeal. Another case tried in Philadelphia yielded a $13.5 million award for the plaintiff. J&J is now appealing the Philadelphia award.

The Ethicon Transvaginal Mesh MDL is proceeding under MDL No. 2327 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. Wanda’s individual Transvaginal Mesh Lawsuit is Case No. 2:16-CV-3844.