Preview Newsletter
Ethicon Media Monitoring 9/26/2017
-
In Pelvic Mesh Case, 11th Circuit Seeks Texas Guidance
Sep 25, 2017 | Daily Report
By Amanda Bronstad
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, ruling in a pelvic mesh case, has certified an "unresolved question of Texas law" to the Texas Supreme Court involving when the statute of limitations period accrues in product liability lawsuits. -
Mesh Autoimmune Registry Seeks Comments, Will Close in Oct.
Sep 25, 2017 | Mesh Medical Device Newsdesk
The autoimmune registry, which is collecting comments from mesh-injured and non-mesh injured, is about to close its questionnaire.
Client Attorney Privileged/Attorney Work Product/At Request of Counsel
Online Sources
-
In Pelvic Mesh Case, 11th Circuit Seeks Texas Guidance
Sep 25, 2017 | Daily Report
By Amanda Bronstad
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, ruling in a pelvic mesh case, has certified an "unresolved question of Texas law" to the Texas Supreme Court involving when the statute of limitations period accrues in product liability lawsuits.
The Sept. 20 ruling comes in a case that originated in multidistrict litigation in Georgia, where U.S. District Judge Clay Land granted summary judgment last year after concluding that the plaintiff's claims were barred by the two-year statute of limitations under Texas law. Ann Marie Bergin, a Texas resident, sued Mentor Worldwide LLC in 2013 after she suffered vaginal pain and discharge allegedly due to its defective ObTape mesh device, which is surgically implanted in women to treat urinary incontinence.
Bergin, who had the device implanted in 2005, argued that she wasn't aware of the product's defects until she saw a TV ad in 2011. But Mentor, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, has insisted that she knew there was a connection between her problems and the device a year after it was implanted, when her doctor removed infected mesh from her body.
The Eleventh Circuit, in a per curiam decision, directed the Texas Supreme Court to clarify whether, under the state's "discovery rule," a plaintiff is required to have knowledge of a manufacturer's wrongdoing before her claims in a product liability case can accrue.
"To resolve this appeal, we must decide which of the above positions is correct, but that answer depends on an unresolved question of Texas law," the panel wrote. "Because the resolution of this appeal, and potentially many other cases involved in pending multi-district actions, turns on a material, unsettled state-law question, we respectfully seek the assistance and guidance of the Texas Supreme Court in answering this question."
Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles principal Leigh O'Dell, who represent Bergin, said the decision by the Texas Supreme Court could have implications beyond her client's case.
"To the degree there's ambiguity in the law, and they clarify that, it's a case that will have an effect," she said. "It arises in a mesh case, but the question they've asked is pretty broad and could be applied in other medical device cases, in particular."
Mentor attorney John Lewis, a partner at Tucker Ellis in Cleveland, did not respond to a request for comment.
The ObTape, removed from the market in 2008, is among several surgical mesh devices made by various manufacturers that have been linked to infections, pain and scarring. The ObTape multidistrict litigation once totaled more than 860 cases, but most have since settled.
Last year, Land criticized plaintiffs' attorneys for bringing meritless cases against Mentor—a complaint often raised generally by the defense bar in multidistrict litigation.
But in Bergin's appeal brief, O'Dell pointed out that U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin, who is overseeing about 70,000 lawsuits involving other mesh devices in the Southern District of West Virginia, took a different stance than Land did. He found in three separate cases over different mesh devices on summary judgment "that Texas plaintiffs' claims accrue upon discovery of a defendant's wrongful act and the resulting injury."
The Eleventh Circuit cited Goodwin's rulings, as well as those by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and several Texas state courts, including the Texas Supreme Court itself, in finding there were inconsistencies and that the law needed to be clarified.
"This present litigation is a prime example of that inconsistency," the panel wrote.
http://www.dailyreportonline.com/recent-news/id=1202798831944/In-Pelvic-Mesh-Case-11th-Circuit-Seeks-Texas-Guidance?mcode=1202616187678&curindex=1&slreturn=20170826014624
-
Mesh Autoimmune Registry Seeks Comments, Will Close in Oct.
Sep 25, 2017 | Mesh Medical Device Newsdesk
Mesh Medical Device News Desk, September 25, 2017 ~ The autoimmune registry, which is collecting comments from mesh-injured and non-mesh injured, is about to close its questionnaire.
UCLA researcher, Dr. A. Lenore Ackerman asks all to add their voice, whether you have autoimmune reactions to mesh or not since they need a control group.
She thanks all who participated!
You made this possible!
In August of last year, Mesh Medical Device News Desk asked mesh- implanted persons to respond to data being gathered by researchers at UCLA concerning autoimmune reactions to mesh, whether hernia or pelvic.
Autoimmune responses to a mesh implant are anecdotal at this time and include, rashes, fibromyalgia, overall flu-like symptoms, loss of teeth, brain fog, Lupus, among other impacts. These symptoms are reported after a mesh implant by so many it became tough to ignore and UCLA researcher Ackerman knew that. Collecting data is the only way to study an issue and is a start.
ee the Hope Pagano story here.
Researcher, Dr. Lenore Ackerman tells MND she will close the survey and finalize the results at the end of October of this year. Until then, she is asking us to recruit folks to participate.
There are about 450 responses so far! Fantastic!!
“I would love to make it to a nice round 500 – which would make any results pretty hard to dispute with that large a number,” ~ Lenore Ackerman, MD If you are interested in participating, please click here for the UCLA survey.
Please feel free to share the survey, which will be conducted anonymously! And if you have contributed to the registry, please take the 15 minutes or so to take the survey so that results can be tabulated into the UCLA database for consistency.
You do NOT have to live in the U.S. to fill out the registry. Men with hernia mesh can also participate. You can participate anonymously so please do not be dissuaded from participating! Thank you all!!!
NO MESH SURGERIES – You Can Still Participate!
If you have folks in your family or friends who HAVE NOT had mesh surgeries who are willing to fill out the survey, it will provide a comparison population. The need is to find a comparison population so they can serve as a sort of control group that can be measured against the mesh-implanted population.
Early reports are the results are profound – the devastation and impacts on life are tough to argue with. Results of this data should be issued shortly and Mesh News Desk will stay up on it!
Thanks you for your efforts and patience as we try to address this serious and poorly understood problem and for all of your help trying to bring light to it. ~ Lenore Ackerman, MD PhD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Urology, now at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, UCLA Health
Dr. Ackerman thanks Hope and all of you who participated. You made this research possible!
LEARN MORE:
MND, The Links Between Surgical Mesh Complications and Autoimmune, July 2017
https://www.meshmedicaldevicenewsdesk.com/the-links-between-surgical-mesh-complications-and-the-development-of-autoimmune-diseases/MND, May 2016, Autoimmune Registry Brainchild of Hope Pagano
https://www.meshmedicaldevicenewsdesk.com/autoimmune-registry-continues-grow-mesh-related-complications/MND, UCLA Partners with Mesh News Desk, August 2016
https://www.meshmedicaldevicenewsdesk.com/ucla-partners-mesh-news-desk-autoimmune-registry-pelvic-mesh-complications/https://www.meshmedicaldevicenewsdesk.com/mesh-autoimmune-registry-will-close-oct/
Client Attorney Privileged/Attorney Work Product/At Request of Counsel
Online Sources
Add recipients
Suggested