A Texas jury has decided that corporate giant Johnson & Johnson must pay $1.2 million to one of the victims who suffered serious injury because of the company’s defective vaginal-mesh implants. Those dangerous products, designed to treat incontinence and other maladies, reportedly injured women’s organs and caused her to experience pain during sex. This case is one of the few that has not been consolidated into a federal case in West Virginia, according to official reports. A total of 12,000 lawsuits have been filed against Johnson & Johnson in connection with the product failures.
The woman in this case did not receive punitive damages. That is, the company was not found to have misled the patient about the risk of the pelvic mesh. However, compensatory damages were awarded to the woman for her medical costs and other civil claims. The decision comes after a recent ruling that the company must pay $11.1 million to a woman who filed the first complaint against the pelvic mesh system.
Official reports show that about 70,000 of the mesh devices had been implanted in American women in 2010 alone. The mesh was designed to strengthen pelvic muscles that had been weakened for a variety of reasons. It was intended to support internal organs and decrease the likelihood of incontinence. The woman in the Texas case, age 64, received the settlement because of the severe pain caused by the erosion of the device within her body.
Patients who receive implants to treat serious conditions should not have to worry that the products will cause further injury. These victims deserve financial compensation from the company that created the defective products. A Texas personal injury attorney may be able to help such victims receive the financial compensation they need and deserve.
Source: NJ.com, “Jury says Johnson & Johnson must pay $1.2M over defective vaginal-mesh implant” No author given, Apr. 04, 2014