The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has reportedly ruled to uphold a $2.43 million verdict in a vaginal mesh lawsuit that was won in 2017.

As reported by Mass Device, plaintiff Sharon Beltz and her husband Walter Beltz Jr. filed suit against Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon alleging the company’s Prolift pelvic mesh injured her.

The pelvic mesh eroded and contracted, according to Mass Device, causing Sharon to allegedly suffer from infection, scar tissue, organ perforation, pelvic pain, painful sexual relations, blood loss and damage to the pelvic floor. According to court documents and Law360, Sharon received the Prolift pelvic mesh in 2006 and underwent another surgery in 2011.

A Philadelphia jury had ruled that Prolift’s risks were greater than the product’s benefits and that the mesh was the source of Sharon’s pain. In two previous trials, punitive damages and compensatory damages of $26 million were awarded, but the latest jury said that Ethicon had provided doctors with information regarding the medical device’s risks. As a result, the jury awarded Sharon $2.16 million.

Johnson & Johnson filed a motion for a new trial too late, according to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, which said the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure allow 10 days to file the motion. Johnson & Johnson waited 17 days after the verdict to file, but argued they had relied on out-of-date information in counting their 10-day period.

The court not only rejected the motion for a new trial, but also increased Sharon’s award to $2.4 million because of the delays she’s endured waiting for the damages.

Vaginal Mesh Lawsuit Allegations

More than 100,000 vaginal mesh lawsuit cases are making their way through the courts. Many women who underwent surgeries to correct pelvic organ prolapse or stress urinary incontinence received implants that allegedly never received proper testing or research prior to being placed on the market.

Some women ended up with worse urinary control or urinary pain issues than they originally received the surgery to correct. Painful sexual intercourse, vaginal scarring, infection and injuries to internal organs are among the pelvic mesh complications women have reportedly filed suit over.

In some cases, the mesh has eroded to the point it hangs out of the vaginal canal or perforates the bladder, bowel or blood vessels.

On April 16 of this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered the manufacturers of transvaginal surgical mesh for the repair of pelvic organ prolapse to stop selling and distributing the products immediately.

“In order for these mesh devices to stay on the market, we determined that we needed evidence that they worked better than surgery without the use of mesh to repair POP. That evidence was lacking in these premarket applications, and we couldn’t assure women that these devices were safe and effective long term,” said Jeffrey Shuren, M.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, through an FDA press release in April.

The Vaginal Mesh Lawsuit is Case No. 141-EAL-2019, in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.