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How Can I File a Hernia Mesh Lawsuit in Michigan?

Legally Reviewed and Edited by: Terry Cochran

If you have suffered severe side-effects or injuries after hernia mesh repair surgery, contact a good hernia mesh lawyer in Michigan, to evaluate your case and assist you with a possible claim. Thousands of personal injury cases have been filed against hernia mesh manufacturers since 2005, with some settlements reached and many still ongoing or in early stages.

What is a hernia mesh implant?

When abdominal tissue separates and allows other abdominal tissue or organs to penetrate through the hole, a hernia forms. This leads to pain, infections, and possible obstructions.

Hernia mesh devices are implanted to stabilize the tissue surrounding the hole and to contain the protruding tissue. They come in different shapes and sizes; some companies carry product lines and others just a group of devices for specific purposes.

Hernia mesh devices can be patches, sheets or plugs and can be made from a variety of materials, be it animal-derived, synthetic (such as polypropylene), coated or composite. They may also be absorbable or non-absorbable.

What are the known side-effects?

  • Mesh shrinkage
  • Tissue fusion
  • Hernia recurrence
  • Severe or chronic pain
  • Infection
  • Bowel blockage
  • Organ perforation

What are the Injuries caused by allegedly faulty implants?

Common injuries of hernia mesh implants

  • Adhesions
  • Erosion of the implant device
  • Mesh failure
  • Abdominal pain
  • Groin and testicular pain
  • Migration
  • Infections
  • Recurrence of the hernia

Severe injuries in hernia mesh cases

  • Perforation of organs or tissues and organ damage
  • Bowel obstruction
  • Fistulas
  • Seromas
  • Chronic pain
  • Life-threatening infections
  • Multiple surgeries
  • Autoimmune problems
  • Delayed or long-term consequences
  • Wrongful death

Hernia mesh implants

For almost 15 years, thousands of hernia mesh lawsuits have been filed against manufacturing companies by personal injury lawyers on behalf of patients injured by allegedly faulty hernia mesh devices.

Injured patients allege they are of inferior design and do not perform the function they were designed for, faulty manufacturing and incomplete sterilization, and in some cases, it was found that products were replaced with counterfeit goods.

Hernia mesh firms

The hernia mesh manufacturers involved in these cases are:

  • Ethicon (a Johnson & Johnson Company)
  • Atrium Medical
  • Bard (Bard Davol)
  • Gore
  • Covidien / Medtronic

The first three have several MDLs where thousands of cases were pooled together for efficiency in multi-district litigation by the federal courts.

How do I know if I can claim?

As in all medical negligence cases, you must be able to prove negligence, and to do so you need to meet all four the following criteria:

Duty of Care – first and foremost, you need to prove that you were owed a duty of care:

  • Doctors – from any professional involved in your care and your case, you are owed a duty of care to deliver the best care possible under the circumstances, at least at a level of skill and expertise as can be reasonably expected from a similar professional given the same or similar circumstances.
  • Institution – the facility where surgery and care took place owes safe surroundings, working equipment, and skilled staff.
  • Device manufacturer – a safe product under normal use, and adequate warning regarding possible side-effects or complications. Also, to notify patients if adverse effects occur.

Breach of duty – Once you have established who owed you a duty of care, you need to prove that this duty was breached.

Causal connection – this is critical; you cannot simply sue a doctor for placing a faulty medical device, you have to prove negligence and most of all that the breach has a direct causal connection to the harm.

Actual loss or harm – you must be able to monetize the harm, for medical bills, other expenses, lost income, and non-economic claims such as pain and suffering. You attorney can help with these calculations.

If you had suffered injuries after a hernia repair and live in Michigan, call Eileen Kroll, a Registered Nurse and Personal Injury trial attorney, at Cochran, Kroll & Associates, P.C. at 866-MICH-LAW for a free case evaluation.

Disclaimer : The information provided is general and not for legal advice. The blogs are not intended to provide legal counsel and no attorney-client relationship is created nor intended.

Nikole has a special interest in medical-legal issues and holds post-basic degrees in medical law and business. She has developed quality improvement and safety plans for many practices and facilities to prevent medical-legal issues and teaches several courses on data protection and privacy, legal, medical examinations and documentation, and professional ethics. She has been writing professionally on legal, business, ethics, patient advocacy, research and medico-legal issues in articles, white papers, business plans, and training courses for over thirty-five years.

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