Ethicon 10/22

Client Attorney Privileged/Attorney Work Product/At Request of Counsel

Online Sources

1. J&J Unit Can't Escape Idaho Woman's Vaginal Mesh Suit

   Oct 21, 2015 | Law360

   By Brandon Lowrey
   
   
   A Georgia federal judge on Wednesday kept a patient's lawsuit alive in multidistrict litigation over injuries caused by a Johnson & Johnson unit's allegedly defective pelvic mesh implants, rejecting the company's argument that she filed her suit too late.
2. Physios should have a greater role in supporting mesh implant patients, enquiry finds

   Oct 21, 2015 | Chartered Society of Physotherapy

   Those are the initial findings from the Scottish independent review into the use of transvaginal mesh in surgery for incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. The document, published on 2 October. examines the outcomes of different types of mesh and surgery.

Client Attorney Privileged/Attorney Work Product/At Request of Counsel

Online Sources

1. J&J Unit Can't Escape Idaho Woman's Vaginal Mesh Suit

   Oct 21, 2015 | Law360

   By Brandon Lowrey

    A Georgia federal judge on Wednesday kept a patient's lawsuit alive in multidistrict litigation over injuries caused by aJohnson & Johnson unit's allegedly defective pelvic mesh implants, rejecting the company's argument that she filed her suit too late.
   
   U.S. District Judge Clay D. Land said in his order that patient Stephanie Mack didn't experience problems from Mentor Worldwide LLC's ObTape Transobturator Tape, used to treat women with urinary incontinence, until years after doctors surgically implanted the product and later had to reclose the incision.
   
   Mentor argued that the statute of limitations should begin running from the Idaho resident's 2005 reclosure surgery, but the judge said the company failed to show that its ObTape caused the complication that led to surgery, which would have started the statutory clock.
   
   "Mentor did not point to sufficient evidence for the court to exclude the reasonable possibility that the site opened simply because the incision failed to heal properly for reasons unrelated to the ObTape, or that the surgical procedure itself contributed to the opening," Judge Land wrote. "For these reasons, a genuine factual dispute exists as to when an ObTape-related physical injury occurred to Mack which would commence the running of the statute of limitations under Idaho law."
   
   Mack's case is one of hundreds accusing Mentor of concealing the risks of the prescription medical device known as the ObTape sling, implanted in women to treat stress urinary incontinence until it was discontinued by the company in 2006.
   
   Many women who underwent the implantation suffered extensive and multiple infections, abscesses, and internal and external scarring, as well as mental and physical pain, according to the suits. Some of the cases allege that the women’s injuries remain to this day because the sling cannot be removed because of extensive infection and fragile body tissues.
   
   Mack says she received an ObTape implant in February 2005. During a follow-up visit about three weeks later, her doctor discovered that the incision site had reopened and exposed a portion of the ObTape.
   
   But Mack said she did not suffer any serious complications until years later. She filed a complaint in May 2014 alleging the ObTape has since caused pain, dyspareunia, urinary problems, recurrence or worsening of incontinence and multiple infections.
   
   Her complaint asserts claims of negligence, strict liability design defect, strict liability manufacturing defect, strict liability failure to warn, breach of express and implied warranties, fraudulent misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment and negligent misrepresentation.
   
   Judge Land's refusal to toss Mack's case comes a day after he tossed a similar case in the multidistrict litigation that he concluded was filed too late. In that case, the judge found that Darlene Benson failed to investigate symptoms that she should have reasonably suspected were caused by her ObTape.
   
   Mack is represented by Andrew S. Williams, David Francis Miceli, John J. Foley and Thomas I. Sheridan of Simmons Hanly Conroy LLC.
   
   Mentor is represented by John Q. Lewis of Tucker Ellis LLP.
   
   The case is Stephanie Mack v. Mentor Worldwide LLC, case number 4:14-cv-00117, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.
   

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2. Physios should have a greater role in supporting mesh implant patients, enquiry finds

   Oct 21, 2015 | Chartered Society of Physotherapy

   Those are the initial findings from the Scottish independent review into the use of transvaginal mesh in surgery for incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. The document, published on 2 October. examines the outcomes of different types of mesh and surgery.

   Mesh implants are safe provided surgeons follow the review’s recommendations, it concludes. These include improving the decision-making process for surgery, involving multidisciplinary teams and ensuring patients are properly informed of the risks.

   The procedure was suspended last summer following a public petition by the Scottish Mesh Survivors Group. In autumn 2015 Scotland’s health minister Shona Robison apologised in parliament to the hundreds of women who had severe pain caused by implant erosion.

   Elizabeth Crothers, a clinical specialist physiotherapist in pelvic dysfunction and a member of the review committee, said many consultants were unaware of the role of physiotherapists in identifying complications.

   One of the key factors highlighted by the review team was that the women felt their repeated complaints had been ignored by medics, she said.

   ‘We need to point out what physiotherapists can do in supporting these patients,’ she said.

   ‘And we want physiotherapy to be specifically mentioned in the care pathways, as we are likely to see more of these cases coming forward,’ she said.

   The recommendations of the interim report will feed into the inquiry’s final report of the inquiry which is expected in 2016.

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