Boston Scientific Slammed with $100 Million in Verdict in Delaware Transvaginal Mesh Case

The medical device maker Boston Scientific must pay $100 million to a woman who alleged she was injured by the company’s transvaginal mesh products. The Pinnacle and Advantage Fit products are the subjects of more than 25,000 lawsuits against the company.

A Delaware jury awarded Deborah Barba $25 million in compensatory damages, as well as $75 million in punitive damages. The 51-year-old Newark, Delaware-woman was implanted with Boston Scientific’s Pinnacle and Advantage Fit mesh products in 2009, to treat pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and stress urinary incontinence (SUI), according to her 2011 lawsuit, which was obtained by Reuters.

Barba alleged the products caused serious complications, and that some of the mesh remains in her body that continues to cause pain, despite surgery to have it removed. Jurors spent about seven hours deliberating at the end of the two-week trial, and ultimately found that Boston Scientific had been negligent in designing and producing the devices, and that the company had failed to warn patients and doctors about potential risks, according to Reuters.

This is the largest transvaginal mesh verdict that Boston Scientific – or any other mesh manufacturer – has faced thus far. Last month, the Marlborough, Massachusetts-based company announced  that the firm had reached agreements to pay about $119 million to resolve 2,970 transvaginal mesh cases. Barba’s verdict was the sixth so far against the company by women who allege that the devices are poorly designed and use substandard materials, resulting in severe pain, bleeding, infection and painful sexual intercourse, Reuters reported.

Last year, Boston Scientific lost three trials in a row, including winning a $73.4 million verdict for a woman in Texas. The amount was later reduced to $34 million. The other back-to-back trials involved groups of four women from West Virginia and Florida, according to Reuters.

Boston Scientific is one of seven manufacturers collectively facing an estimated 100,000 lawsuits over transvaginal mesh devices in U.S. federal and state courts. Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon unit and C.R. Bard are among the other major defendants, Reuters reported.

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