AMS Transvaginal Mesh Scammers?

Toronto, ONIn its AMS transvaginal mesh litigation, American Medical Systems says a medical funding scheme set up by businessmen, lawyers and doctors profits from women who want transvaginal mesh removed, according to Canada’s National Post and Reuters.

Scam or legit?

While AMS says it shouldn’t have to pay for needless mesh removal surgeries, there are medical funding companies lending money to AMS victims - who are usually desperate to get the transvaginal mesh removed - to have the surgery. Funders are counting on payback when the victims’ lawsuits settle, along with a hefty interest. Reuters reports that Judy Buzzell, who had an AMS implant in 2009, owes 39 percent annual interest. Buzzell testified that she was contacted by a telemarketer and another go-between and helped her obtain a $21,000 advance from the litigation funder LawCash, to pay for her surgery and travel expenses. As of this August, she owes LawCash $46,500. The average AMS settlement per plaintiff is $39,000.

Reuters reported (May 20) that AMS subpoenaed Law Firm Headquarters, a “legal marketing and support organization that works with highly reputable and experienced attorneys” that finds transvaginal mesh victims like Buzzell. Add to the fray, Surgical Assistance, an intermediary company that connects patients and surgeons, which paid surgeon Michael Hulse to remove Buzzell’s mesh.

Abbe Lowell, an attorney with Law Firm Headquarters, said AMS tactics, i.e., the subpoena, is delaying “resolution of these cases, to the further detriment of those who have been injured,” while they are trying to help women who have been harmed by AMS transvaginal mesh.

AMS, on the other hand, said in a May 12 filing in West Virginia federal court that it has evidence that four women were coerced into having mesh removal surgery that their own doctors did not recommend, and this network (the companies above) are “orchestrating the exploitation of unsophisticated medical and legal consumers and seeking to perpetrate a fraud.”

As if transvaginal mesh victims haven’t suffered enough.