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Bard Must Pay $5.5M in First Product Liability Lawsuit

A California jury awarded Christine Scott and her husband $5.5 million in a precedent setting product liability lawsuit filed against C.R. Bard Inc. due to injuries caused by the company’s Avaulta Plus vaginal-mesh implant product.
Scott’s case is the first among several hundred lawsuits that have filed against Bard and other companies who make these implants. The implants used to fix incontinence and bulging or prolapse of pelvic organs allegedly caused injuries and organ damage.

Christine Scott had to have nine surgical procedures to correct the problems caused by use of the device, which eroded and caused incontinence and pelvic pain. Plaintiff’s lawyers provided evidence that showed Bard had not properly tested the product before putting it on the market.

They asked the jury for an award of $11 million. The jury in the Kern County Court in Bakersfield, CA awarded $5 million to Christine Scott for medical expenses, damages, pain and suffering, and another $500,000 to her husband for loss of consortium.

Out of this $5.5 million, Bard only has to pay $3.6 million in damages. The jury decided that Bard was responsible for 60 percent of the damages, while the remaining 40 percent was assigned to Dr. Tillakarasi Kannappan who had implanted the device in 2008. Dr. Kannappan was not a defendant in this case, since Scott’s medical malpractice claim against the doctor was separated from the case against Bard last year.

Bard says they are not at fault and plan to appeal against the decision. Avaulta has FDA approval, but a review of side-effects conducted by the FDA in-between 2008-2011 and the resultant report showed that the device poses high risk to patients.

Earlier this year, the FDA ordered 31 companies to study organ damage rates and complications arising from use of vaginal-mesh implants. Federal lawsuits against all Bard, Johnson & Johnson, Boston Scientific Corp. and others have been consolidated to a U.S. District Court judge in Charleston, WV.