According to different sources, Johnson & Johnson has reached at least four different settlements in separate vaginal mesh lawsuits, which named their subsidiary Ethicon as the primary defendant. Reportedly, one of the settled cases recently went to trial in January 2015. This case along with the other three  vaginal mesh lawsuits may be the first settlements reached out of the thousands of vaginal mesh lawsuits filed against J&J, its subsidiary, and various medical device manufacturers.

As of now, no details on the Ethicon vaginal mesh settlements have been released. However, some news reports have indicated that the settlements were reached in state court claims, including one settlement for a wrongful death lawsuit, which alleged the decedent plaintiff died as a direct result of vaginal mesh complications. These vaginal mesh settlement agreements were decided upon just days before a status conference was slated to take place before U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin in the Southern District of West Virginia, regarding the thousands of vaginal mesh lawsuits awaiting trial in federal and state courts across the nation.

In preparation for the status conference, the defendants had been ordered to bring their legal representatives to make decisions related to the lawsuits, which included the possibility for settlements. There are currently several different vaginal mesh multidistrict litigations (MDLs) taking place throughout the United States, each of which are centralized before Judge Goodwin. This includes at least 22,721 Ethicon vaginal mesh lawsuits according to the latest case list from the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML).

Judge Goodwin scheduled the status conference to take place between Feb. 5 and 6, 2015, with each of the defendants being ordered to appear once again with legal representatives in order to make settlement decisions. Recently, several vaginal mesh bellwether trials have been held before Judge Goodwin and resulted in multimillion dollar damage rewards to the plaintiffs, with only a few manufacturers reaching settlement agreements.

If the vaginal mesh manufacturing companies, including Ethicon, are not able to reach settlement agreements with their respective plaintiffs during these status conferences, then hundreds of lawsuits will be refiled into their original district court, and will be scheduled for their own individual trials. These individual vaginal mesh lawsuit trials would be expected to span several years. In fact, the size of the vaginal mesh litigation makes legal experts worry that it would take decades to try each case individually in the event that settlements are not reached.

Each of the vaginal mesh lawsuits involve similar allegations made by women who used the vaginal sling or mesh products and sustained certain personal injuries. The injuries women reported in the vaginal mesh lawsuits include: infection, erosion, mesh tearing, organ tearing, and even death. The plaintiffs argue that the manufacturing companies failed to protect them against their products’ design defects by failing to warn them against the severe vaginal mesh side effects they experienced.

Overview of Vaginal Mesh Complications

Vaginal mesh was originally developed for hernia repair during the 1950s, but were later redesigned to treat pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and stress urinary incontinence (SUI) in women during the 1970s. It was a simple process, involving surgeons cutting a piece of surgical mesh and molding it into the correct shape and size. The device was then implanted in a woman’s body during surgery. After the first surgery proved to be successful, other medical device manufacturing companies started developing their own variations, eventually establishing the vaginal mesh product market.

Initially, women with POP and SUI were thrilled at the creation of vaginal mesh because they now had a discreet way of treating their bodily conditions. Unfortunately, major design defects were soon discovered, as women across the country reported suffering debilitating vaginal mesh complications. In 2011, approximately 4,000 vaginal mesh injury reports were submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), going as far back as five years. In the same year, the FDA made a public warning addressing the severe complications that could occur from using vaginal mesh, stating they were not rare as previously believed.

The complications of vaginal mesh can be devastating to the patients because the side effects are often so painful they interfere with everyday life. For example, mesh erosion often leads to pain during intercourse and the possibility for infection. Oftentimes, women opt to remove the vaginal mesh to prevent further complications, but often still suffer from lasting pain.