After only four hours of deliberation, a 9-person Miami federal court jury found Boston Scientific liable after an eight-day trial. The company was ordered to pay four women a total of $26.7 million in one of the first federal trials for mesh devices. The company was found liable for selling faulty transvaginal mesh implant devices.
The women suffer permanent damages, including chronic pelvic pain and infection, bleeding, nerve damage and mesh migration, as a result of the company’s Pinnacle device, used in the treatment of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and stress urinary continence. These women face additional surgeries to have the Pinnacle removed, although it was intended to be a permanent implant.
The jurors decided the Pinnacle Pelvic Mesh Repair Kit was defectively designed and that its instructions to physicians were also defective and that the company was negligent and failed to warn patients about the dangers of the Pinnacle.
The company was ordered to pay the women $26.7 million in compensatory damages, between $6.5 million and $6.7 million each. The jury declined awarding punitive damages.
Approximately 15,000 federal lawsuits are pending against Boston Scientific over its mesh devices. They are one of seven companies, including Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon Inc. and C.R. Bard, that have been faced with lawsuits over these devices. Endo International PLC said in September it had set aside $1.6 billion to settle “substantially all” the cases against it and its American Medical Systems unit.
During the Miami trial, Boston Scientific was accused of failing to perform critical safety studies in its attempt to rush the device to market. The company denied wrongdoing and said each woman and her doctor had been aware of the risks.
Boston Scientific has faced three previous trials in state court regarding the mesh devices, resulting in two wins for the company and one $73 million loss, which was later reduced to $34 million.
The Miami and West Virginia “bellwether” cases are test trials to help both sides assess the value of the claims.
Another Boston Scientific trial is now being heard in federal court in Charleston, West Virginia Charleston, involving claims by four women who were implanted with the company’s Obtryx device.
If you or a loved one suffered injuries from a transvaginal mesh device, contact one of our Gacovino Lake attorneys at 800-246-HURT (4878) for more info.
