A jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island found defendants Davol, Inc. and C.R. Bard, Inc. liable for injuries suffered by plaintiffs Christopher and Laure Thorpe as a result of the negligent design of the Composix® Kugel® Mesh hernia repair patch and the failure to warn of the dangers associated with the patch.The plaintiffs were awarded $1.3 million by the jury for personal injury damages and another $200,000 for loss of consortium.
The case, Christopher Thorpe and Laure Thorpe v. Davol, Inc. and C.R. Bard, Inc., was the second case to go to trial out of thousands of cases filed against Composix® Kugel® Mesh hernia patch manufacturer Davol and parent company C.R. Bard in MDL No. 07-1842 ML, Rhode Island federal court’s first consolidated multidistrict litigation (MDL). The verdict comes after a Rhode Island jury found the same defendants negligent in the design of the hernia patch in the first tried case. Before Chief Judge Mary M. Lisi, it was argued that Mr. Thorpe suffered severe internal injuries caused by a broken plastic ring on the hernia repair mesh, including an abdominal wall abscess and fistula.
Mr. Thorpe’s injuries required him to undergo multiple surgeries to repair the damage caused by the defective hernia patch, injuries from which he continues to suffer due to the serious nature of the physical damage caused by the patch. The jury found that the defendants proximately caused Mr. Thorpe’s injuries by failing to provide adequate warning or instruction for the hernia repair patch and acting unreasonably in designing the patch. The jury also found that the defendants’ negligence proximately caused Laure Thorpe to lose the consortium of her husband as a result of his injuries and subsequent physical and emotional suffering.
Between December 2005 and March 2006, specific lot numbers of defective Composix® Kugel® Mesh hernia repair patches were recalled after it was found that the memory recoil ring, which opens the patch, could potentially break under the stress of placement in the intra-abdominal space and lead to chronic intestinal problems such as bowel perforations and chronic intestinal fistulae (abnormal connections or passageways between the intestines and other organs). Thousands of patients across the country ultimately filed lawsuits against Davol and Bard after suffering a wide array of serious medical complications allegedly caused by the defective patches. The lawsuits were eventually consolidated in In Re: Kugel Mesh Hernia Patch Products Liability Litigation in 2007.
The two remaining cases selected for early bellwether trials in the federal Composix® Kugel® hernia patch litigation are scheduled to begin in November 2010 and January 2011.
Our firm is currently investigating cases involving injuries related to Composix® Kugel® Mesh Patches.
You may contact us at jon@gelmans.com or call 973.696.7900 orcomplete our on line form: http://www.gelmans.com/FrontEnd/Cases/submit_case.asp