Product News and Recalls

Mesh implants prompt class action suit in Australia

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports on a class action lawsuit that Johnson & Johnson faces in Australia over the company’s transvaginal mesh implants.

According to the report, the mesh devices have caused “life-changing harm” for a significant number of the women who received them because of their tendency to erode in patients’ bodies.

The implants are sling-like devices designed to treat urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse, which is a condition where the muscles don’t provide adequate support for internal organs. The report includes an interview with a woman who suffered pelvic organ prolapse after childbirth.

As a result of the implant, she ended up in near-constant, debilitating pain. The report includes an interview with her gynecologist, who says “the mesh was acting like a cheese grater in her body and had literally rubbed a hole in the wall of her vagina.”

The report notes that Johnson & Johnson has been the subject of other recent class action lawsuits in Australia over its joint replacement products, including the DePuy all-metal hip implant. According to the report, the DePuy hip “left hundreds of patients poisoned and seriously disabled” from its propensity for early failure and leaking toxic metal debris.

The report says the two devices have cast doubt on the effectiveness of Australia’s national regulatory procedures for medical devices, which allows for them to be approved without adequate testing because of their alleged similarity to products that are already on the market.

The DePuy hip and transvaginal mesh implants have prompted similar concerns in the United States, where both were approved under an FDA loophole that allows for medical devices to be approved without clinical testing in humans, based on their “substantial equivalence” to other devices.

And as in Australia, both the DePuy hip and transvaginal mesh implant have led to large-scale lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson.

You should consult with a doctor if you have any ongoing symptoms or health concerns from a DePuy hip or transvaginal mesh implant. If you have significant injuries, you should also consult with a DePuy hip or transvaginal mesh lawyer to discuss your legal rights.

See the story here:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-15/johnson-26-johnson-facing-massive-class-action/4314346