Plaintiff Jamie D. has lodged a lawsuit against Ethicon and Johnson & Johnson, alleging that the device that was supposed to help her instead caused severe and unexpected hernia mesh pain.

The lawsuit says that the manufacturers of this device are responsible not only for the issues involved, but the resulting hernia mesh pain that she experienced. She says this pain was due to the company’s failure to disclose the risks to allow her and other patients to make an informed decision about receiving the device.

The plaintiff says she underwent inguinal hernia repair in November 2014 but continued to experience multiple infections as well as chronic abdominal pain. The plaintiff says that she still experiences numerous problems related to the hernia mesh, including small bowel obstruction, fissures, and chronic abdominal pain. The mesh required surgical removal, according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiff alleges in her lawsuit that she was implanted with the PMH proline hernia patch manufactured, distributed and sold by Ethicon and Johnson & Johnson. The hernia mesh pain lawsuit says that that product was made of various materials that were biologically incompatible with body tissue and caused significant pain and risks for the patients who received it.

Jamie alleges that the defendants should have known or did know that the product was unreasonably harmful but failed to disclose this information to medical community or to the public. The lawsuit says that there was significant scientific evidence indicating that the mesh was incompatible with human tissue and was likely to result in a negative immune response for those patients who had the product implanted.

A 2016 FDA hernia mesh report indicated that the most common adverse event types filed by patients who received the device included adhesion, pain, infection, bowel obstruction, and hernia recurrence. Other issues such as mesh migration and mesh shrinkage were also reported.

The lawsuit says that the PMH-Proline hernia mesh product is marketed to patients and the medical community as a safe and effective solution without properly disclosing the negative and dangerous risks. The defendants are accused of failing to carry out adequate and proper testing to determine the benefits and risks of the product.

The hernia mesh pain lawsuit goes on to argue that there were suitable alternatives to the product that existed at all times since the product came on the market that did not carry the severity of or frequency of risks as the product itself.

Patients who experiences hernia mesh pain after a surgery are encouraged to report these conditions to their doctor immediately. While the symptoms alleged in the lawsuit against Ethicon and Johnson & Johnson are some of the most common hernia mesh side effects, other patients’ reactions could be different. Any marked changes in health should lead to a doctor’s appointment to evaluate whether or not the changes are due to hernia mesh pain and related complications.

The Hernia Mesh Lawsuit is Case No. 3:18-cv-15514-PGS-DEA, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.