A federal panel has decided to streamline pre-trial proceedings for what could be as many as 122 Bard Davol hernia mesh lawsuits currently pending in federal court.
And widespread use of the medical device could mean hundreds of other people may come forward with injuries.
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation combined 53 federal lawsuits into a multidistrict litigation (MDL) on Aug. 2, 2018. MDLs allow a large number of similar cases to move more efficiently through the legal process. The panel said another 69 cases currently in federal court may also qualify.
The Bard Davol hernia mesh lawsuits join two other hernia mesh MDLs. One involves Atrium’s C-QUR mesh. The other is over Ethicon’s Physiomesh Flexible Composite hernia mesh.
The Bard Davol litigation brings the total number of hernia mesh lawsuits in MDLs to more than 1,800.
Another 180 lawsuits over Bard Davol hernia mesh are pending in state court. The suits all claim the mesh caused serious injuries.
What the MDL Means for People Injured by Bard Davol Hernia Mesh
Multidistrict litigations can sometimes result in large legal settlements. But people have to file a hernia mesh lawsuit to be a part of any settlement.
The Bard Davol MDL focuses on polypropylene hernia mesh products. People joining the MDL must have suffered injuries from Bard Davol hernia mesh. They may be able to identify the manufacturer through hospital records.
What Hernia Mesh Injuries Are People Suing Over?
The Bard Davol MDL includes lawsuits claiming several hernia mesh complications. Many people required more surgeries to treat or correct their injuries. They claim defects in Bard Davol polypropylene mesh caused their complications.
Bard Davol hernia mesh injuries listed in lawsuits include:
- Adhesions (sticking to internal organs)
- Inflammatory and allergic responses
- Mesh rejection
- Migration (the mesh moved in the body)
- Organ damage
- Infections
Which Bard Davol Hernia Mesh Products Are Named in Lawsuits?
Bard hernia mesh brands include about 15 different brand names. Hernia mesh lawsuits name different models of the company’s mesh.
Bard hernia mesh brands include:
- 3DMax
- AlloMaxBard Soft Mesh
- Bard Mesh Sheets
- Composix
- Dulex
- MK Patch
- OnFlex
- PerFix Plug
- Phasix Mesh
- Sepramesh IP Composite
- Ventralex
- Ventralight
- Ventrio
- Visilex
- XenMatrix Surgical Graft
Not all Bard Davol meshes are included in the MDL. It only includes those made from polypropylene. The one exception in the MDL may be the Bard Composix Kugel Hernia Patch (“CK Patch”). The company asked that the panel leave its CK Patch out of the MDL.
But the federal MDL panel did not make a decision one way or the other. That was because none of the cases so far include the CK Patch.
“We will address this question in due course through the conditional transfer order process,” Judge Sarah S. Vance wrote in a transfer order dated Aug. 2, 2018.
Thousands of Patients Have Received Bard Davol Hernia Mesh
Bard is one of the largest hernia mesh manufacturers in the U.S. Bard Davol hernia mesh brands are among the most widely-used products of their kind.
Bard’s surgical specialties group reported $637 million in sales in 2016. The company credits its hernia mesh for driving sales in that group. And an increasing number of surgeries have relied on Bard Davol mesh in recent years.
“Our synthetic hernia repair category exhibited the best growth we’ve seen in over a decade,” Bard said in its 2016 Annual report.
Bard was formerly known as C.R. Bard. Davol is a division within Bard that produces hernia mesh and certain other medical devices. Becton, Dickinson and Company, better known as BD, acquired Bard and its subsidiaries in 2017.