LPR’s Tim O’Brien Will Try Second Bellwether Trial in Bard Hernia Mesh MDL in March
Levin Papantonio Rafferty (LPR) Attorney Tim O’Brien will be serving as Co-Lead Counsel for the Plaintiffs in the second bellwether trial for the Bard hernia mesh multidistrict litigation (MDL). The trial will commence on March 21, 2022.
The Honorable Edmund A. Sargus, Jr., a United States District Judge for the Southern District of Ohio, is leading up MDL 2846, In Re: Davol, Inc./C.R. Bard, Inc., Polypropylene Hernia Mesh Products Liability Litigation. The MDL combines for discovery and pretrial proceedings thousands of cases alleging that defects in the defendants’ polypropylene hernia mesh products can cause medical complications—including adhesions, damaged organs, inflammatory and allergic responses, foreign body rejection, migration of the mesh, and infections—when implanted in patients.
Plaintiffs Antonio Milanesi and Alicia Morz de Milanesi were selected for this second Bard bellwether trial.
About the Plaintiffs in the Upcoming Hernia Mesh Bellwether
Mr. Milanesi suffered from what was thought to be a recurrent hernia. He underwent surgery to repair the hernia but later discovered his problems stemmed from bowel erosion with a fistula and adhesions. This required a bowel resection. Not long after this procedure, a high-grade postoperative small bowel obstruction presented itself, requiring emergency surgery.
Ten years earlier, Mr. Milanesi received a Ventralex Large Hernia Patch implant to repair a hernia. In the Milanesi’s complaint, they allege that the Ventralex Large Hernia Patch implantation caused Mr. Milanesi to suffer injuries and that the Defendants knew that the Ventralex Large Hernia Patch carried risks, but nevertheless marketed and sold the device without appropriate warnings.
Attorney Tim O’Brien will present and argue the following claims on behalf of the plaintiffs:
- Defective design (strict liability)
- Failure to warn (strict liability)
- Negligence
- Gross negligence
- Negligent misrepresentation
- Fraud and fraudulent misrepresentation
- Fraudulent concealment
- Loss of consortium
- Punitive damages
About the Bard Hernia Mesh MDL
C.R. Bard, a subsidiary of Beckton-Dickson, is a medical device company and the leading manufacturer of hernia mesh devices. These implants consist of a mesh (artificial screen) that serves to reinforce surgically repaired muscle walls.
Bard also led the industry in deploying permanent, as opposed to absorbable, hernia mesh products. This line of products included the Bard® Mesh and the Ventralight ST Mesh. The key to these new devices was ensuring that patients’ bodies would not reject the mesh products and that the devices would not abnormally attach to adjacent tissues and organs.
To address the latter concern, Bard used a plastic (polypropylene) mesh with a special coating. This covering was to serve as a barrier that would prevent the mesh from affixing to nearby organ tissue.
However, the coating proved to be incompatible with some patients’ immune systems, causing multiple types of complications. In some cases, the mesh’s coating dissolved, and the mesh would attach to bowel tissue or that of other organs.
The plaintiffs claim to have suffered at least one of several injuries:
- Bowel obstruction
- Pain
- Infections
- Detachment and migration of the mesh
- Mesh attaching to organs and tissues
- Punctured tissue and or organs
The plaintiffs in the Bard hernia mesh MDL allege that the defendants failed to adequately test the medical devices, which contained design flaws that made them harmful to patients.
Thousands of hernia mesh product liability lawsuits were consolidated in an MDL in 2017. The outcome of the bellwether trials will inform average settlement payouts for the remaining cases.
