Vaginal Mesh Lawsuit Joins MDL against Coloplast Corp.

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Plaintiff Aleene Henson has filed a lawsuit against Coloplast Corp. Her vaginal mesh lawsuit joins existing multidistrict litigation against Coloplast, alleging that this medical device caused serious complications.

Transvaginal mesh is a type of surgical material designed to help support the organs of the pelvis when their usual support musculature is weakened. For example, during childbirth, some women suffer from pelvic organ prolapse or POP, a condition where the uterus collapses out of place. Since vaginal mesh is based on an older medical technology, it was able to skip several steps in the approval process. Unfortunately, transvaginal mesh has been linked with a number of potential complications.

Reports of Vaginal Mesh Complications Grow

While Henson’s initial filing does not contain many details about her specific vaginal mesh complications, several have been reported.

Some patients have reported erosion, a process wherein the mesh implant cuts through surrounding tissue by mechanical friction. In other cases, the mesh implant has been reported to cause scarring and a related condition called adhesion, a situation where scar tissue fuses various pelvic organs together, impairing their function.

In some cases, the body grows tissue around the vaginal mesh, causing pain and complicating the mesh implant’s removal. These issues have been reported across different brands and models of vaginal mesh, leading to a group of recalls and lawsuits. The vaginal mesh lawsuits allege that manufacturers did not do enough to protect patients from the risks associated with pelvic mesh, and that they actively over-promoted the mesh implants despite safer alternatives.

Thousands of Vaginal Mesh Lawsuits Filed

The legal action against mesh manufacturers has taken the form of multidistrict litigation or MDL. MDL is a type of group lawsuit, similar to the more familiar class action lawsuit. In group lawsuits like this, a group of plaintiffs allege that they have suffered from similar harm by a single defendant, or group of defendants.

The main difference between class action lawsuits and MDLs is that in a class action lawsuit, all of the plaintiffs have a single lawyer (or more commonly, a legal team) while in MDLs, plaintiffs retain their own legal counsel. While Henson’s case joins the MDL against Coloplast, similar MDLs have been filed against Ethicon (a division of Johnson and Johnson), C.R. Bard, Boston Scientific, and other companies that produced pelvic mesh implants.

The vaginal mesh implant lawsuit is Aleene Henson v. Coloplast Corp., Case No. 2:13-cv-28261, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.

It has been added to the Coloplast MDL known as  In Re: Coloplast Corporation Pelvic Systems Product Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2387, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.

If you had revision surgery to repair damage caused by vaginal mesh, or you have surgery scheduled, you may qualify for compensation. Find out more about your legal options by visiting the Transvaginal Mesh, Vaginal Sling, Vaginal Mesh and Bladder Sling Class Action Investigation. Here, you can enter information about your situation for a legal review by a trained expert with a background in this type of litigation. The initial consultation is completely free of charge and from it, you can receive additional guidance on the best steps to take in your specific situation.