A pelvic mesh injuries lawsuit has been filed by a woman who claims Ethicon was negligent by placing a defective product in the marketplace.

Plaintiff Nancy E. says she received an Ethicon TVT pelvic mesh implant in December 2003. The product was designed to treat women suffering from stress urinary incontinence. However, Nancy alleges that she suffered pelvic mesh injuries because of the defective nature of the device.

Pelvic mesh injuries occur for many reasons. The human body’s immune response can promote the degradation of the mesh material as well as the degradation of the surrounding pelvic tissue. The Ethicon TVT pelvic mesh is made of polypropylene, a material the company claimed was inert, but Nancy and other patients allege that this is not true.

Nancy’s claim joins many others like it already pending in a multidistrict litigation, or MDL. According to the MDL master complaint against Ethicon, “the scientific evidence shows that this mesh material is biologically incompatible with human tissue and promotes an immune response in a large subset of the population receiving Defendants’ pelvic mesh products.”

Ethicon is within the medical devices and diagnostics sector of pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson.

Pelvic Mesh Injuries Lawsuit Claims Profits Placed Before Safety

According to the pelvic mesh injuries MDL, Ethicon marketed the mesh products to doctors and patients “through carefully planned, multifaceted marketing campaigns and strategies” that included cash and non-cash benefits to health care providers. Patient brochures offered “exaggerated and misleading expectations as to the safety and utility of the pelvic mesh products.”

The pelvic mesh injuries MDL accuses Ethicon of misrepresenting the risks of the mesh products that caused some patients to suffer “catastrophic and permanent injuries.”

Ethicon conveyed that known complications for the pelvic mesh products were “rare” and “small” occurrences, but they knew or should have known complications were “common, permanent and debilitating.”

The reasons for pelvic mesh injuries extend to the way the device itself is implanted. Because it is inserted transvaginally, the mesh passes through areas of the body known to naturally contain high levels of bacteria, yeast, and fungus. These substances adhere to the mesh and end up inside the body where they encourage immune reactions and subsequent mesh and tissue degradation.

The procedure requires the doctor to insert the mesh “blindly,” which can result in nerve or organ damage upon insertion, alleges the Ethicon MDL.

The pelvic mesh injuries MDL also says that “biomechanical issues with the design of the mesh that create strong amounts of friction between the mesh and the underlying tissue” can cause tissue to degrade, resulting in injury.

The mesh material is not porous, causing “the formation of a scar plate that prohibits tissue in-growth, resulting in mesh contraction, nerve damage, pain, and erosion of the mesh into other organs, and failure of the device,” allege patients in pelvic mesh injury lawsuits.

The mesh itself also sheds particles as it degrades, say patients. This action results in an increased inflammatory response, and the migration of the particles can result in further pelvic mesh injuries.

Patients experience chronic pain and functional problems because the pelvic mesh creates “a non-anatomic condition in the pelvis,” alleges the pelvic mesh injury lawsuit.

If you or someone you love has suffered from pelvic mesh injuries, you could be eligible for compensation through legal representation.

The Pelvic Mesh Injuries Lawsuit is Case No. 2:17-cv-04040 and is part of the Ethicon Pelvic 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.