What is a transvaginal mesh implant, and who uses it?
Transvaginal mesh, also known as urogynecologic surgical or pelvic mesh, offers extra support while treating weakening or damaged tissues. Most surgical meshes on the market are made from synthetic materials and animal tissue (mostly cow and pig).
The mesh products, available in knitted and non-knitted sheet forms, can be absorbed into the body for short-term healing or utilized as a permanent implant. The absorbable transvaginal mesh promotes new tissue development and strengthens the wounded region.
Transvaginal mesh implants treat pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and stress urinary incontinence in women (SUI). If you are a woman suffering from one of these disorders, the vaginal mesh will almost certainly be utilized to treat the condition if more conservative treatments fail. In POP instances, it is permanently implanted to strengthen the fragile vaginal wall. In terms of SUI repair, it acts as a sling to support the urethra or bladder neck.
Transvaginal mesh complications
The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has received around 4,000 complaints about transvaginal mesh treatments over the previous six years since 2011. Thousands of women who underwent transvaginal mesh implants to address pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence allege the devices caused serious complications such as pain, organ damage, and other issues.
The following concerns were raised in the transvaginal mesh lawsuit:
- Organ perforation
- Excruciating pain
- Painful intercourse
- Vaginal scarring
- Vaginal shrinkage (as scar tissue builds)
- Bleeding
- Infection
- Mesh erosion
- Nerve damage
- Neuro-muscular issues
Who qualifies to be in vaginal mesh lawsuits?
The vaginal mesh lawsuit targets at least six medical device makers, alleging that the implants are faulty, hazardous, and inappropriate for use. It is thought that the claimed flaws in these devices are not restricted to a particular brand or kind of implant, putting thousands of women at risk of catastrophic injury who have undergone mesh surgery to address pelvic organ prolapse (POP) or stress urinary incontinence (SUI).
If you have issues after transvaginal mesh surgery, you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries.
Vaginal mesh lawsuits are essentially product liability cases. You are unlikely to file a medical malpractice claim against your physician unless there was extreme negligence or medical misconduct at some time during the transvaginal repair surgery; the main issue in the vaginal mesh case is with the implant itself.
Also, remember that not every woman with a vaginal mesh implant will be eligible for legal action.
An attorney will want to know if you underwent transvaginal mesh or bladder sling surgery and when it occurred. Sometimes lawsuits exclusively target pelvic mesh products manufactured between specific dates. The lawyer will also want to know what ailment led the implant to be placed and any transvaginal mesh issues you had after surgery.
Can you claim vaginal mesh compensation?
If you had vaginal mesh implants after June 2015 and were never adequately told of the potential complications, you may be eligible to seek compensatory damages for your pain and suffering. If you meet any of the following conditions, you can seek assistance from our experts.
Contact our attorneys if;
- You believe you were not given adequate information regarding vaginal mesh problems before your mesh surgery.
- You were not informed that the implant would be permanently implanted in your body.
- You did not receive a consultation prior to the treatment, or you were not given enough time to weigh the benefits and downsides.
- You were dissatisfied with the quality of your pelvic mesh procedure.
- You sought more than one surgery due to the implant one or more times following your surgery and were not treated adequately.
- Healthcare personnel disregarded your subsequent complaints.
- You needed revision surgeries to fix the harm done by your mesh implant.
- Before surgery, you were not provided any alternatives to vaginal mesh implants, such as pessaries, mesh-free surgery, or pelvic floor therapy.
Transvaginal mesh lawsuits
In product liability cases, courts assess what transpired using one of two theories: negligence or strict product liability. The latter word implies that the person’s intent was deemed irrelevant as long as the result is flawed in some way.
A transvaginal mesh implant that didn’t function as intended might fall into one of these categories for faulty products or potentially more:
- Design flaws – Even a flawlessly built product might threaten the final user if the defect was designed into it. If a product fails to operate as expected when utilized as intended, it is considered unreasonably unsafe.
- Failure to warn – Also known as “marketing defects,” these focus on supply chain activity. The product was well-designed. However, it lacked sufficient instructions and caution. Because of this lack of guidelines, the product was unreasonably harmful to its intended customers.
- Manufacturing defect – Even if the product was supposed to be safe, the final product did not meet that standard. The manufacturer may be held accountable if such a product injures the intended user.
According to these standards, transvaginal mesh procedures or implants that caused injury to patients would very certainly qualify as a manufacturing defect. It was intended to be harmless. However, the actual implant caused injury to people.
Mesh implants MDL lawsuits.
You can file your own lawsuit in either state or federal court, depending on where you live and where the defendant is situated. If you live in one state, but the defendant lives in another, you must file a federal lawsuit.
You can also join an existing multidistrict litigation, or MDL, complaint. This choice is sometimes made for you by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, a group of seven federal district judges in charge of all MDLs. They do this when there are several similar instances with shared factual issues.
There are currently no class-action lawsuits filed for surgical mesh devices (the last one was closed in 2016), although there are several MDLs. Attorneys often prefer MDLs over a class action suit because they provide several benefits and have bigger payouts.
Remember that each state has a statute of limitations, which is the amount of time you have to submit your lawsuit. Once that deadline has passed, you will no longer be able to file. Some states only allow one year to file a case, so you should move quickly. Your claim will be preserved if you hire an attorney.
Product liability law (sometimes known as defective product law) is quite specialized. You’ll want a lawyer with expertise who understands how to work with any existing multidistrict litigation vaginal mesh lawsuits. If you or a loved one has had complications with transvaginal mesh, please get in touch with Thomas Plouff for a free consultation about what can be done for you.
