A plaintiff, Guilla A., has filed a products liability litigation against the manufacturers of the vaginal mesh, Ethicon Inc., alleging that she suffered severe adverse effects and complications due to being implanted with the device.

According to the Ethicon Prolift lawsuit, the plaintiff was implanted with the defendant’s Prolift vaginal mesh product.

Guila filed this products liability lawsuit in West Virginia federal court. She, a resident of New Jersey, alleges that she implanted with the product in April 2008, at West Jersey Hospital, located in Vorhees, N.J.

The Ethicon Prolift lawsuit raises the following claims: Negligence, Manfactuing Defect, Failure to Warn, Defective Product, Fraudulent Concealment, Negligent Misrepresentation, Breach of Express Warranty, Breach of Implied Warranty, and Violation of Consumer Protection laws.

Guilla’s Ethicon Prolift lawsuit is filed as part of a large multidistrict litigation, or MDL, centered on allegations that the vaginal mesh caused serious adverse health effects and complications including a severe negative auto-immune response.

Ethicon Prolift MDL Lawsuit Facts

According to the Ethicon Prolift lawsuit, the vaginal or pelvic mesh Prolift product, manufactured by the defendant, is one of several transvaginal meshes at issue with Ethicon and its multidistrict litigation going on in West Virginia federal court. Plaintiffs allege that due to their implantation of the transvaginal mesh, they suffered severe adverse effects and complications.

According to their allegations, they purport that Ethicon Inc. and its parent company, Johnson & Johnson failed to adequately warn them that the implantation may erode, move out of place, and cause a severe negative auto-immune response or other harmful inflammatory reactions.

Johnson & Johnson continues to face several similar transvaginal mesh lawsuits. Additionally, with the exception to the ongoing MDL in West Virginia federal court, roughly 8,700 claims, if not more, have been filed against Johnson & Johnson in their home state of New Jersey.

Transvaginal Mesh Facts

The vaginal mesh was designed for treatment of POP, known as pelvic organ prolapse, and SUI, known as stress urinary incontinence.

The Ethicon Prolift mesh is made of a monofilament polypropylene mesh and/or collagen. Plaintiffs allege these materials may be the source of their Ethicon Prolift complications.

According to the Ethicon Prolift lawsuit, however, although there are claims that the material is inert, “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 defendant’s pelvic mesh products.”

Moreover, the Ethicon Prolift lawsuit continues to allege that “this immune response promotes degradation of the polypropylene mesh, as well as the pelvic tissue, and can contribute to the formation of severe adverse reactions to the mesh.”

According to the lawsuit, due to the biological incompatibility of the material with human tissue, it promotes a severe negative immune response do those implanted with it.

The Ethicon Prolift Lawsuit is Case No. 2:17-cv-03896 and is part of the Ethicon Vaginal Mesh MDL, In re: Ethicon Inc., Pelvic Repair System Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2327, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.