A new pelvic mesh lawsuit filed by an Oklahoma woman joins the ongoing litigation against C.R. Bard, alleging that the medical company endangered lives with a dangerous medical product.

Pelvic mesh is a type of surgical mesh, pre-cut and modified for pelvic surgery. Also called transvaginal mesh, bladder slings, and vaginal mesh, pelvic mesh is designed to support the organs of the pelvis when their usual support structures are weakened due to illness or injury, like pelvic organ prolapse or stress urinary incontinence.

Since pelvic mesh was based on an existing technology (surgical mesh), medical companies were able to skip several major steps of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) testing through a controversial program called the 501(k) program. The 501(k) program allows medical supply companies to skip most steps of testing if their device is “substantially similar” to existing technology.

This led to several companies, including C.R. Bard, releasing pelvic mesh around the same time. However, serious problems have been reported across all brands and types of pelvic mesh. Allegedly, pelvic mesh can cause serious pelvic mesh complications, including mesh pain and mesh erosion.

In mesh erosion, the pelvic mesh cuts into the tissue it’s supposed to be protecting, causing mesh pain and other serious complications. Pelvic mesh lawsuits have also alleged that pelvic mesh can cause embedment, a process in which pelvic mesh encourages tissue to grow around the mesh, causing pain and making it difficult, or even impossible, to remove the mesh surgically and correct the problem.

These allegations and others have led to pelvic mesh lawsuits like this one. This pelvic mesh lawsuit was filed by plaintiff Brenda O. of Oklahoma. According to the pelvic mesh lawsuit, Brenda received a pelvic mesh implant in 2008.

However, she subsequently suffered severe complications. The couple’s pelvic mesh lawsuit was filed against C.R. Bard, and alleges that the company failed in its duty to protect the public against the risks of pelvic mesh complications like erosion and mesh embedment, endangering the public and leading to complications.

This pelvic mesh lawsuit joins a much larger group of related pelvic mesh lawsuits. So many pelvic mesh lawsuits have been filed that the legal system has turned to a process called a multidistrict litigation, or MDL. MDLs are a process used to coordinate tens, hundreds, or thousands, of individual cases against the same defendant.

Individual pelvic mesh lawsuits typically make very similar allegations and hinge on similar evidence, making them ideal for inclusion in a pelvic mesh MDL. However, since several different companies produced pelvic mesh, there are several pelvic mesh MDLs, each with hundreds or  thousands of individual pelvic mesh lawsuits coordinated within them.

This Pelvic Mesh Lawsuit is Case No. 25777, filed within the larger MDL In Re: C.R. Bard, Incorporated, Pelvic Systems Product Liability Litigation, MDL NO. 2187, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, Charleston Division.