Breaking News from Dallas, TX: Jury Finds Ethicon Liable for TVT-O Product Defect

Just yesterday, the jury announced a verdict in the Batiste v. Ethicon trial which began on March 17, 2014 in the 95th District Court in Dallas, TX. The jury has apparently found that Ethicon puts the con in ethical, returning a verdict of $1.2 million in favor of the plaintiff, ending a dramatic trial two and a half week trial before Judge Ken Molberg.

Linda Batiste  is a 64-year-old woman who has spent the majority of her life in Dallas. On January 12, 2011, Dr. John Robert McNabb at the Baylor Medical Center implanted her with an Ethicon TVT-O polypropolene prolene mesh sling as a treatment for stress urinary incontinence.  Problems unfolded as Ms. Batiste faced mesh-related complications, which she still suffers from today.

On the defense was healthcare giant Ethicon, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, which launched the TVT-O in 2004 as an update to the TVT transvaginal tape. The “O” in TVT-O stands for “obturator approach,” a way of attaching the mesh inside the pelvis as opposed to the retropubic approach.

Ms. Batiste’s counsel used compelling expert witness testimony, peer reviewed scientific papers and disturbing documents from Ethicon’s own files that proved that Ethicon knew of potential adverse impacts of implanting the TVT-O device . The TVT-O procedure was known by Ethicon to cause groin and leg pain as well as a higher possibility of damage to the nerve closest to the obturator bone.

The jury consisted of seven men and seven women from various backgrounds. Their verdict helps to show the potentially irreversible harm and severe suffering that transvaginal mesh devices, such as the TVT sling can inflect on patients in whom the device is implanted. Transvaginal mesh devices are still on the market and placed in women in transvaginal mesh surgery to this day.