ethicon 4/23

Online Sources

1. Airdrie woman files class-action lawsuit against U.S.-based manufacturer of pelvic mesh implant

   Apr 22, 2015 | Calgary Sun

   By Kevin Martin
   
   
   The U.S. maker of a “pelvic mesh” implant used to treat bladder problems “put its profits ahead of patient safety,” claims a class action lawsuit filed by an Airdrie woman. The woman’s claim, filed in Calgary Court of Queen’s Bench, seeks a minimum of $500,000 for each person implanted with a pelvic mesh product made by Cook Inc. of Bloomington, Indiana.

Online Sources

1. Airdrie woman files class-action lawsuit against U.S.-based manufacturer of pelvic mesh implant

   Apr 22, 2015 | Calgary Sun

   By Kevin Martin

   he U.S. maker of a “pelvic mesh” implant used to treat bladder problems “put its profits ahead of patient safety,” claims a class action lawsuit filed by an Airdrie woman.

   
   

   The woman’s claim, filed in Calgary Court of Queen’s Bench, seeks a minimum of $500,000 for each person implanted with a pelvic mesh product made by Cook Inc. of Bloomington, Indiana.

   
   

   It also asks for $20 million in punitive damages “for the reckless and unlawful conduct of the defendants.”

   
   

   The claim alleges the devices put patients at significant risk for a multitude of complications.

   
   

   “In many cases putative class members have also been forced to undergo intense medical treatment, including, but not limited to: operations to locate and remove the mesh.”

   Others have required surgery to either repair pelvic organs, or remove portions of female genitalia, it says.

   
   

   “The defendants’ pelvic mesh products are inherently dangerous and defective, unfit and unsafe for their intended and reasonably foreseeable uses,” it says, of Cook and its partner companies, including Cook (Canada) Inc.

   
   

   “The ... products create risks to the health and safety of the patients that are far more significant than the risks posed by other products and procedures.”

   
   

   The plaintiff, who the Sun has chosen not to name, received an implant at Rockyview General Hospital on May 17, 2011.

   
   

   After the surgery she began to suffer side-effects which included painful intercourse, bladder and vaginal infections and other problems, the lawsuit says.

   
   

   Statements of defence disputing the unproven allegations in the claim have not been filed.

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