Pelvic mesh products

A Bergen County, New Jersey, jury awarded $33 million on Thursday in a pelvic mesh products liability trial against medical device maker C.R. Bard.

Plaintiff Mary McGinniss was awarded $23 million in damages and her husband, Thomas, was awarded $10 million for loss of consortium. The jury will reconvene Friday to consider whether to award punitive damages against Bard, which is headquartered in Murray Hill, New Jersey.

The case is the first bellwether trial against Bard in New Jersey's mass tort program.

The jury found that the Avaulta Solo Prolapse Repair System and the Align Transobturator Stress Urinary Incontinence Repair system were defectively designed and failed to provide adequate warnings. As a result of defects in the devices, McGinniss had to have several surgeries, and was left with permanent pain and serious injuries, Adam Slater of Mazie Slater Katz & Freeman in Roseland, New Jersey, who represented her, said in a statement.

Slater said in the statement that he would hold a press conference after the punitive damages phase of the trial is complete.

According to the New Jersey judiciary's website, 154 pelvic mesh cases against Bard are pending before Superior Court Judge James DeLuca in Bergen County.

Even if no punitives are added, Thursday's verdict is among the highest ever recorded in litigation over pelvic mesh products, according to the website Drugwatch.com.

The site only recorded two higher verdicts in such cases nationwide.

In May 2015, a Delaware jury awarded $100 million to Deborah Barba on claims that Boston Scientific's Pinnacle and Advantage Fit mesh implants were defectively designed after the devices eroded, caused vaginal scarring, constant pain and other complications.

In Barba's case, an appellate judge deemed the award excessive and reduced it to $10 million, according to Drugwatch.com.

And in September 2014, a Texas state jury awarded $73.5 million to Martha Salazar after finding Boston Scientific was negligent for failing to warn doctors and patients of risks associated with the Obtryx bladder sling. An appeals court later reduced the award to $34.6 million, Drugwatch.com reports.

And ALM publication The Legal Intelligencer reported in September 2017 a $57.1 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson's subsidiary Ethicon in a pelvic mesh trial in Philadelphia.

Bard settled more than 500 pelvic mesh lawsuits for $21 million in 2014, and resolved another 3,000 cases for $200 million in 2015.

Bard has also seen verdicts in individual pelvic mesh suits for $5 million, $3.6 million and $2 million in recent years, according to Drugwatch.com.

Bard was represented by Lori Cohen of Greenberg Traurig in Atlanta.

Bard spokesman Troy Kirkpatrick issued a statement, which said: “We are disappointed with the outcome of the trial and we plan to appeal. Any implantable medical device carries inherent risks as well as clinical benefits. We provide information about both the risks and the benefits of these products in order that physicians, in consultation with their patients, can determine whether those benefits outweigh the potential risks in a particular instance.

“While we understand that Mrs. [McGinniss] was dissatisfied with the outcome of her procedure, it is important to note that thousands of women over many years have benefited from these products and have improved lives because of them.”

Bard once sold more than a dozen types of pelvic mesh devices but the company took all of them off the market in June 2017, according to Mesh News Desk. The move came shortly after Bard, a medical device manufacturer, was sold to Becton Dickinson for $24 million, that site said.