Maryland plaintiff Teressa R. is suing Ethicon Inc. for the injuries she allegedly suffered from their vaginal mesh product, the TVT-Obturator (TVT-O). Teressa claims that as a direct result of using the transvaginal mesh device, she experienced debilitating pain and mesh erosion.

As one of many women who was looking to treat either her pelvic organ prolapse (POP) or stress urinary incontinence (SUI), Teressa opted to have a vaginal mesh device implanted into her pelvic region. Ideally, this would have prevented pelvic organ prolapse and allowed normal urinary control.

Adhering to this request, her physician recommended the TVT-O vaginal mesh, manufactured by Ethicon Inc., based on the defendant’s advertisements and the plaintiff’s needs. After getting the vaginal mesh device surgically implanted on May 12, 2010, the plaintiff reportedly suffered no initial complications and responded well after the procedure was over. However, it was not long after the mesh was implanted that the plaintiff allegedly started suffering from several vaginal mesh complications.

One of those complications was reportedly vaginal mesh erosion, where the mesh actually erodes inside the body, which gives way for device failure and infection. Teressa states that at no point before or after she got the vaginal mesh implanted had she been informed of the possible side effects of the device. Reportedly, her surgeon and physician received no special instructions from the defendant, and were also unaware of the adverse side effects.

Teressa is taking legal action against Ethicon for failing to protect her against their product’s complications, stating that there should have been some kind of indication on the product’s warning label. The plaintiff’s lawyer states that Ethicon had the responsibility to warn Teressa and other mesh consumers of these complications, because they rely on the accuracy of the given information. Teressa insists that she never would have used the vaginal mesh device if she had known about the potential of severe vaginal mesh complications.

Teressa is suing Ethicon for being allegedly responsible for manufacturing, selling, distributing, and marketing a dangerous product. The charges include: negligence, false advertising, concealing information, and misrepresenting a product.

This Vaginal Mesh Lawsuit is a part of the Vaginal Mesh MDL In Re: Ethicon Inc., Pelvic Repair System Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2327, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, Charleston Division.

Overview of Vaginal Mesh Complications

As of November 2014, over 65,000 vaginal mesh lawsuits have been filed against several major medical device manufacturing companies including: C.R. Bard, Ethicon Inc., American Medical Systems, and Boston Scientific. Most of these vaginal mesh lawsuits have been consolidated into pretrial proceedings to save litigation resources and allowing the lawsuits to get quickly processed. While many vaginal mesh lawsuits have been settled outside of court, many of them are still pending and are awaiting for their turn to appear in court. Each of these lawsuits have been filed by women who had been injured by a vaginal mesh product, who had agreed to have the products inserted in order to treat either their POP or SUI conditions. However upon receiving them, they allegedly experienced very painful side effects that sometimes resulted in permanent injuries.

Among the most common injuries allegedly linked to vaginal mesh include mesh erosion, organ damage, chronic pain, bowel and bladder perforation, vaginal scarring, urinary infections, and painful intercourse. Many of these women have opted to have the mesh surgically removed, but many have them had to receive additional medical treatment due to mesh tearing and abscesses. With such extensive medical treatment, many of these women also found themselves facing financial setbacks as the additional medical bills can be staggering.

The FDA issued an official safety announcement in January 2012, addressing the risks attached to vaginal mesh products. This order announced that the mesh manufacturing companies had been order to study the risks associated with these products, following a recommendation made by an FDA advisory panel in September 2011. In this recommendation, the FDA stated that number of vaginal mesh injury reports increased significantly between the years of 2008 and 2010, and should be used with caution.