Court Upholds Ruling Favoring Victim of Defective Pelvic Mesh Implant

On April 3rd of this year, a Texas jury ordered the New Jersey-based company Johnson & Johnson to pay $1.2 million in damages to 64-year-old Linda Batiste for the faulty design of its TVT-O pelvic mesh implant.

The mesh, manufactured by Johnson & Johnson’s unit Ethicon, Inc., is designed to treat medical issues such as pelvic organ prolapse or stress urinary incontinence. Batiste had the mesh implanted to treat incontinence, but alleged that she later suffered pelvic pain when the sling eventually eroded inside of her. A Dallas jury concluded that the mesh sling was flawed and that Ms. Batiste was entitled to $1.2 million in compensatory damages.

Ms. Batiste’s case is hardly the first injury report related to transvaginal mesh implants. Consider the following:

• Johnson & Johnson, headquartered in New Brunswick, NJ, is currently facing more than 12,000 lawsuits related to the defective pelvic inserts.
• Others suing the company have alleged that the mesh, which is designed to fortify pelvic muscles, damaged their internal organs and made sexual intercourse painful.
• To facilitate pretrial exchanges, many of these cases have been consolidated before a federal West Virginia judge, while others are being heard in various state courts.

Any product that is poorly designed, defectively manufactured or distributed lacking adequate warning of its inherent hazards can cause serious, lasting injuries or even death. Injury cases of this nature fall into the legal category of product liability — but the issue is further complicated in cases like Ms. Batiste’s, which occur in a health care setting and thus raise potential issues of medical malpractice. 

Victims injured by defective or unsafe medical products in Bergen County or elsewhere in New Jersey should consult a personal injury lawyer who can assess the case and provide options for taking legal action.