AMS Vaginal Sling Lawsuit Filed by Woman Who Suffered Severe Injuries

By Kimberly Mirando

 

American Medical Systems (AMS) has been hit with another transvaginal mesh lawsuit by a woman who claims she suffered extreme pain, tissue erosion, dyspareunia, and other vaginal mesh injuries as a result of being implanted with an AMS SPAPC Sling System. Her vaginal mesh lawsuit is seeking damages for claims of strict liability, negligence, breach of warranty, fraud and negligent misrepresentation, among others.

 

According to the woman's AMS vaginal sling lawsuit, she was implanted with a SPAPC Sling System in 2008 to treat her pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence. The AMS vaginal mesh device was approved under the FDA's fast-track 501(k) approval process, which means it bypassed rigorous testing methods because AMS was able to show the device was "substantially similar" to other vaginal mesh devices on the market. This has exposed thousands of women implanted with the transvaginal sling device to serious complications associated with vaginal mesh failure, such as chronic pain, vaginal scarring, mesh erosion, infection, organ injuries, perforated bladder, perforated bowel, pain during sex, and more. Many of these women have chosen to sue the vaginal mesh and vaginal sling manufacturers over their injuries, seeking compensation through a vaginal mesh lawsuit.

 

In 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned the public that transvaginal mesh and vaginal sling devices should be of "continuing serious concern" and that vaginal mesh side effects were "not rare." Hundreds of vaginal mesh lawsuits have been filed against device manufacturers like C.R. Bard, AMS, Ethicon, Boston Scientific, UGUTEX and Coviden over their defective vaginal mesh and vaginal sling products.

Many of these transvaginal mesh lawsuits have been consolidated into a single MDL proceeding. The vaginal mesh lawsuit MDL allows hundreds of transvaginal mesh victims to file lawsuits under the jurisdiction of one judge, but still allows each vaginal mesh Plaintiff to retain her own attorney and receive an individual award if the case is won or settled. The award they would receive is typically much larger than any individual award expected in a vaginal mesh class action lawsuit. In a transvaginal mesh class action lawsuit, hundreds of thousands of vaginal mesh patients are joined together. Once, or if, a vaginal mesh class action settlement is reached, the class members would typically share the award, which could be in the range of thousands of dollars per claimant, rather than tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars in some cases for individual transvaginal mesh lawsuits.

Updated July 27th, 2012

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