Women Sue Manufacturers of Pelvic Mesh Implants For Causing Catastrophic Injuries To Their Internal Organs

Over 700 women have joined a class action after they were left with catastrophic injuries from pelvic mesh implants.

The women claim that the surgical mesh approved by Australia’s medicine watchdog, has left them disfigured and disabled, causing chronic pain and has destroyed their sex lives. A lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson Medical Australia and subsidiary companies Ethicon Inc and Ethicon Sarl to seek hundreds of millions in compensation, starts in Sydney’s Federal Court today.

They also alleged that the implants were not fit for their purpose, were not of merchantable quality, were not safe and that the companies were negligent for rushing the devices onto the market without clinical testing.

Since 2000, the mesh implants have been used by thousands of Australian women to treat uro-gynaecological issues typically caused by childbirth.

In some medical reviews, it was said that up to one in eight suffer complications including scarring, infection, bleeding, organ perforation, incontinence and recurrent prolapse.

Among them was primary school teacher mum-of-three Jan Hawkins, 60, from the NSW Central Coast, who said she was forced to retire after she developed severe complications from a pelvic mesh implant she had inserted in 2007.

“I had some ghastly tests that showed the mesh had buckled and folded,” she said. “Everything had prolapsed and I had terrible troubles with the bowel. Everything was in a real mess and ulcers had started forming.”

She said it cost her a total of about $20,000 to have one of only about two doctors in Australia who can remove the implants to carry out the procedure in 2013.

The mesh implant couldn’t be completely removed so parts of it and its hooks remain inside Ms Hawkin’s body, continuing to cause her pain and other medical complications.

Shine class action lawyer Rebecca Jancauskas told news.com.au that the pelvic mesh implants had ruined the lives of many Australian women.

“The complications that Australian women are suffering include the mesh or tape eroding through, and into, surrounding tissue and organs, as well as incontinence, infection and chronic pain,” she said. “Many now live in excruciating pain, suffering terrible side effects that impact all aspects of their lives. In many cases they are even unable to be intimate with their partners. It has had truly devastating consequences.”

She adds that the products were not been recalled and some remain on the market.

The landmark class action is one of the largest medical civil cases in Australia.

A Senate inquiry into transvaginal mesh devices will hear from women across the country who were left with injuries.

Another 300 Australian women are registered for a second class action against American Medical Systems, which developed mesh devices including Perigee and Apogee. Apogee was cleared for use in America in 2004, and relied on the Australian-developed device for clearance. News.com.au understands other Australian women have filed lawsuits against individual doctors.

Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration still allows surgeons to implant the mesh despite bans, warnings and withdrawals in other countries and more than 120,000 pending lawsuits in the US. However, some of the implants have been discontinued.

Source: News.com.au