Last month, we wrote about Donna Cisson, who had sued CR Bard Inc., which had sold vaginal mesh that the company itself had said was not suitable for human implantation. The mesh is surgically implanted to resolve urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse, a condition in which the organs have dropped out of their normal position.
Cisson had claimed that the mesh caused her pain, bleeding and bladder spasms that required follow-up surgeries, but a mistrial was declared because of a mistake in testimony. Last week, however, Cisson won the case, and the federal jury assessed CR Bard $2 million in damages, reports AboutLawsuits.com. It’s the first of more than 25,000 federal lawsuits that have been filed over vaginal mesh.
Cisson’s judgment includes punitive damages.
Several vaginal mesh cases have been tried in state courts. Last year, according to AboutLawsuits, a California jury decided against CR Bard, for $5.5 million, and in March, a New Jersey jury assessed damages of $11.1 million for a different manufacturer’s mesh product.
See the FDA’s consumer alert about surgical mesh here.