Yesterday brought great news for the hundreds of people injured by defective hernia patches. The second bellwether trail over injuries related to Kugel mesh hernia patch concluded with a victory for the plaintiff. A Rhode Island federal court jury awarded a man who claims that the device caused serious internal injuries $1.5 million.
This is the second such case to be tried and the first to be decided in favor of the plaintiff. The jury sided with plaintiffs’ attorneys, finding that defendants Davol Inc. and C.R. Bard Inc. inadequately manufactured and failed to warn patient Christopher Thorpe and his physicians that the device could fail.
The Composix Kugel Hernia Patch began being recalled by the FDA in Dec. of 2005 over concerns that the “memory recoil rings” that were designed to keep the patches flat had the potential to break causing bowel perforation and other serious internal injuries.
Plaintiffs argued that a broken recoil ring was to blame for Thorpe’s injuries, while the defendants claimed that the patch had not been properly inserted which resulted in the subsequent injuries.
I am happy to see these victims getting the justice the truly deserve for the terrible injuries they have suffered as a result of these devices. Hopefully this is a good sign of things to come for other hernia patch injury victims.
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