J &J Executive Testifies to Vaginal Mesh Failure Rate in Ethicon Trial
With the New Jersey trial over Ethicon’s Gynecare Prolift vaginal mesh device underway, a Johnson & Johnson executive has testified that the prototype for the device had a significantly high failure rate during preliminary testing.
The plaintiff in this lawsuit against the J&J subsidiary, Linda Gross, filed her lawsuit after she says she was severely injured after having the device implanted. Like numerous other women who have had this and similar devices implanted, the vaginal mesh required repeated surgery to correct. Vaginal mesh devices are used to help treat pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence. The devices are known to cause serious adverse effects, including erosion, infections, vaginal scarring and painful intercourse. These side effects have caused many patients to file lawsuits amid claims that the manufacturers of the device, like Ethicon, failed to properly warn of the dangers linked to the device. They also allege that the company knew how dangerous the implants were before it sought approval.
In this particular lawsuit, J&J executive Scott Ciarrocca testified that a prototype of the Gynecare Prolift device failed within six months in more than 20 percent of the women who received the implant. Ciarrocca headed the Ethicon team that brought the Prolift device to the market. He was brought in to testify as proof that the Ethicon team was negligent in researching the device and/or that the company lied in order to rush the device to the market despite all of the proof that the implant was a danger to patients.
Ethicon is not the only manufacturer to be sued over a vaginal mesh device. Others are also undergoing similar lawsuits over their devices as well. Some of the manufacturers under fire these days include C.R. Bard, American Medical Systems, Coloplast and Boston Scientific.
