Texas Plaintiff Joins Flood of Lawsuits Citing Ethicon Physiomesh Problems

Atlanta, GAEthicon Physiomesh may be off the market at the behest of its manufacturer, but that hasn’t stemmed the flood of lawsuits that have been piling up in multidistrict litigation. In this case, the surgical mesh lawsuit has been filed by a plaintiff with the surname Flood.

Plaintiff Amy Flood, a woman from Texas, received Ethicon Physiomesh Composite Mesh in October 2015 to repair a hernia. The mesh in question, measuring 10cm by 15cm, was placed by way of a laparoscopic incisional procedure that avoids a more invasive impact to skin, muscle and underlying tissue and instead uses a tube through which a rolled-up section of mesh is inserted by way of a small incision and guided into place by a surgeon using a camera, before deploying the mesh at the appropriate site.

Laparoscopic surgery has been found to lessen blood loss, speed healing and reduces the strain on hospital resources. However, the fallout has been an increase transvaginal mesh and hernia mesh lawsuits.

Amidst a growing parade of complaints and surgical mesh side effect lawsuits, Ethicon voluntarily recalled the Physiomesh product from the market last year.

“Defendants’ Physiomesh was defectively designed and/or manufactured, was not reasonably safe for its intended use in hernia repair, and the risks of the design outweighed any potential benefits associated with the design,” Flood’s lawsuit states. “As a result of the defective design and/or manufacture of the Physiomesh, there was an unreasonable risk of severe adverse reactions to the mesh or mesh components including: chronic pain; recurrence of hernia; foreign body response; rejection; infection; inadequate or failure of incorporation/ingrowth; migration; scarification; deformation of mesh; improper wound healing; excessive and chronic inflammation; adhesions to internal organs; erosion; abscess; fistula formation; granulomatous response; seroma formation; nerve damage; tissue damage and/or death; and other complications.”

Flood asserts in her hernia mesh lawsuit that the product caused painful surgical mesh complications that necessitated revision surgery. Her lawsuit names Ethicon, Inc. as well as Johnson & Johnson, Inc. and was filed in US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division on October 9 of this year (Case No. 2:17-cv-689). It is expected that Flood’s lawsuit will join others in multidistrict litigation before US District Judge Richard Story in US District Court, Northern District of Georgia (IN RE: Ethicon Physiomesh Flexible Composite Hernia Mesh Products Liability Litigation, Case No. 1:17-md-02782).