Articles Posted in Hernia Mesh

Strattice “Pig Skin” Hernia Mesh: A Product and Litigation Overview

Published on: February 2, 2023 | By Clay Hodges

Hernias are a common health problem for adults. How they’re treated often depends on an individual’s overall health and how the hernia affects their daily life. When medical treatment is needed, surgery making use of a special mesh is the common recommendation. But some of these meshes have caused problems for some patients. One such surgical mesh in particular has been the Strattice Reconstructive Tissue Matrix (Strattice mesh). To understand the issue with the Strattice mesh, let’s first get some background information.

What Is a Hernia and How Is it Treated?

A hernia is a medical condition where there’s a hole or weakness in a wall of tissue, such as fascia or muscle. Because of this hole or weakness, an internal organ or fatty tissue will protrude or push through and into a part of the body where it shouldn’t be. This can cause pain, organ dysfunction (through a loss of blood supply or obstruction in the organ), swelling and/or a visible bulge at the site of the hernia.

Important Ways You Can Jump Start Your Hernia Mesh Case

Published on: January 27, 2023 | By Clay Hodges

Clients approach their defective product cases in different ways. Some call me with an injury caused by a medical device and say, essentially, “figure it out.” I have no problem with a client taking this position. Others keep detailed notes and meticulous records and send me a package of documents that can be several inches thick. I never require a client to do this initial “leg work,” but it can often jump start a case against the device manufacturer. If you are inclined to be more involved in the process, at least early on, I have noted some important tasks below you can accomplish to launch your hernia mesh case.

Let’s start with two assumptions: (1) you had hernia mesh implanted in your body in the past, and (2) you have suffered injury because of the hernia mesh. Where do you go from there?

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Physiomesh Hernia Mesh Causes Painful Scar Tissue, Other Injuries

Published on: June 21, 2017 | By Clay Hodges

Hernia mesh is causing problems. People who have been implanted with hernia mesh have suffered adhesions (scar tissue that sticks together), inflammation, pain, allergic reactions, internal bleeding, infections, and many other injuries.

One of the hernia mesh products sold for years, Ethicon’s Physiomesh, has caused many of these health problems in patients. In revision or removal surgeries, the Physiomesh has been discovered to have shrunk, folded, or curled. Surgeons have found scar tissue surrounding the mesh. This scar tissue can cause severe pain and discomfort. In many cases, by the time the mesh is removed, the damage has been done and long-term problems remain.

What Is Hernia Mesh?

Your Health Insurance Company Expects to be Repaid for Your Product Liability Injuries

Published on: May 22, 2017 | By Clay Hodges

When a device or drug maker pays money to an injured person for a defective product, several costs must be repaid from these funds. There will likely be medical liens, expenses of litigation, attorney’s fees, and health insurance liens. You can get an overview of these cost repayments in a post I wrote last year. In today’s post I want to take a closer look at health insurance liens (and the related concept of health insurance “subrogation”), mainly because health insurance companies can take a big bite out of your product liability settlement funds. Best to understand this unpleasant news upfront.

How Do Health Insurance Liens Work?

If you have health insurance, much of the cost of your medical care will be paid by your health insurance plan. Let’s say you need revision surgery to remove defective hernia mesh. The total cost of the surgery is $36,000.00, but under contracted payment rates between the hospital and your health insurance company, the cost is reduced to $24,000.00. Under your agreement with your insurance company, it pays $20,000.00 for this surgery and you pay a total of $4,000.00 in “co-pays” (that is, the amount you must pay “out of pocket” under your health insurance plan). So far so good.

A week after the surgery, while you recover from the operation (and watch afternoon commercials asking if you have been injured by defective hernia mesh), you receive a letter from your health insurance provider asking specific questions about how you were injured. The health insurance company is trying to figure out if a third-party is ultimately responsible for your injuries and thus for the costs of your revision surgery. The insurance company may want to know if you are pursuing a product liability claim against the manufacturer of the hernia mesh. It is no secret that the health insurance company is looking to be reimbursed for the payments it made for your mesh revision surgery. The moment you file a lawsuit against the product manufacturer, your health insurance company will submit a “lien” identifying its claim to some of the settlement funds. And trust me, these companies will not let this claim go lightly; they will pursue reimbursement aggressively, and you will most likely have a contractual responsibility to pay the health insurance company from your settlement funds. In fact, if possible the insurance company will expect to be repaid 100% of the costs it paid for your health care caused by the negligence of others. Continue reading

Physiomesh and C-Qur: Hernia Mesh Litigation Ramping Up

Published on: January 17, 2017 | By Clay Hodges

Even if you’ve never needed a surgical mesh implant, you’ve probably heard about a number of lawsuits due to problems patients are having with them. One type in particular has been the transvaginal mesh (TVM) implants in women. These TVM lawsuits are well underway, with tens of thousands of lawsuits currently pending. However, it appears another influx of lawsuits involving more surgical mesh implants are appearing on the horizon: surgical mesh used to treat hernias.

Treating Hernias with Surgical Mesh

First off, let’s briefly explain what a hernia is. A hernia appears when an internal organ protrudes through a wall of tissue (often a muscle) into another area of the body where it doesn’t belong. Depending on how bad the hernia is, surgery may be required to fix it.

Because hernias involve a hole in a muscle or other tissue, additional reinforcement is usually needed to close the opening and keep it from reopening. This is where surgical mesh comes in. The mesh often takes the form of a plug or sheet of biological or synthetic mesh and is surgically implanted over the hole.

Clinical studies have shown that using surgical mesh to treat hernias reduces the chances of the hernia returning. Each year hundreds of thousands of hernia surgeries are performed. Given their proven effectiveness, it’s no wonder that many of these surgeries use a surgical mesh. Unfortunately, a significant number of the meshes have serious flaws.

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Clay, thank you sir for making a disheartening experience at least palatable, you and your staff were honest, caring and understanding through the entire process of my wife’s hip replacements, while monetary settlements never make the pain and suffering end, it sometimes is the only way people can fight back to right a wrong. J. V.

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