
A jury has been seated in a bellwether federal lawsuit against a transvaginal mesh manufacturer.
It took a West Virginia U.S. District Court judge just two hours to seat a jury in the first federal lawsuit against a manufacturer of transvaginal mesh.
Judge Joseph Goodwin whittled 18 jurors down to eight for the trial, which is expected to last about three weeks.
Mesh manufacturer C.R. Bard is named as a defendant in a lawsuit brought by Donna Cisson and her husband Don. For years, Cisson had suffered from incontinence which eventually evolved into pain during sex. She underwent transvaginal mesh implant surgery back in 2009 after a specialist diagnosed her with pelvic organ prolapse.
In her lawsuit, Cisson says she suffered from pain, injury, and permanent deformity due to the mesh. After several corrective surgeries, she has also suffered economic losses. Her husband is also suing for loss of consortium.
This is not Bard’s first time in court facing a lawsuit over its Avaulta mesh. Last year, the company lost a state lawsuit in California in which the plaintiff was awarded $5.5 million. Bard continues to work through its appeals in that case.
Since the start of the lawsuits, Bard has taken Avaulta mesh off the market, and the FDA has been warning patients of serious complications related to the devices, which have caused several different side effects for thousands of women.
The Cisson lawsuit is the first of four legal actions against Bard in federal court. At the conclusion of these cases, it is expected that Bard will make a decision to settle the remaining thousands of claims or fight them on a case-by-case basis.
If you have been the victim of injury due to transvaginal mesh, contact a Tucson personal injury lawyer at the Showard Law Firm to learn more about your rights as a patient.