Hernia Mesh Lawsuit: Claims and Settlements

Damages resulting from a faulty hernia mesh procedure could qualify you for compensation. If you believe you have sustained an injury due to your implant, you may be eligible for a hernia mesh lawsuit filed as a personal injury claim.

In terms of legal options following your procedure, you need to know how the claims process works for a hernia mesh lawsuit, which defendants you should target, and whether your case can be filed as part of a class action lawsuit involving multiple plaintiffs. By looking at the history of hernia mesh cases, you may be able to estimate how much you could be compensated, but your case will be unique based on your symptoms and timeline.

Continue reading to learn about your options, eligibility, and recommended steps to take after deciding to file a hernia mesh lawsuit. The best thing you can do is hire an experienced personal injury attorney, preferably with a history of similar cases involving hernia mesh claims, medical malpractice, or injury claims.

What is a Hernia Mesh Lawsuit?

A hernia mesh lawsuit begins when a patient who received a hernia mesh implant sustains an injury due to the implant’s failure. Hernia mesh malfunction, which can be known as breakage, absorption, or migration depending on how the mesh fails, has become a well-known concern among patients of this relatively common procedure, resulting in unnecessary health complications.

Importantly, there are different ways to treat or repair hernias based on the type of hernia it is and the severity of the injury. Hernias result from tissues, whether from organs, intestines, or fat, breaking through a weakened area in the surrounding tissue, resulting in a painful bulge. Depending on their location and severity, hernias can sometimes be seen from the outside, but they are usually hidden.

Hernias are most likely to occur in areas where organ systems intersect connective tissue in a way that makes them vulnerable to injury. For example, the inner groin could be overstretched or injured to allow the intestine to poke through a tissue wall, resulting in an inguinal hernia.

Other common types include a hiatal hernia involving the stomach, femoral hernias in the outer groin, incisional hernias in the lower abdomen, ventral hernias in the ventral wall, and umbilical hernias in the belly button.

If you are seeking compensation for a hernia mesh injury, you may be wondering how you got a hernia in the first place. Depending on the stresses that caused the hernia, they may also have been the activities that caused the hernia mesh to fail. This could be an important part of your medical records as your physician’s notes will be used to determine if the hernia mesh failure was the cause of your symptoms.

The most common causes of a hernia involve activities that place internal pressure on the weakened tissue areas. For example, obesity can increase pressure on the abdomen and groin, leading to hiatal or inguinal hernias. Heavy lifting, constipation, and chronic coughing can also lead to muscle tissue weakness that can result in a hernia.

Before receiving a hernia mesh implant, your doctor will likely review other treatment options based on your situation. Not all hernias require treatment, and many can be managed with lifestyle changes and alternative therapies such as chiropractic adjustments.

However, for more severe cases, surgical options are available, with or without mesh implants. They include laparoscopic procedures that repair hernias and open repair procedures, which address the injured tissue. These procedures are well-accepted as treatments for hernias. However, the recurrence of hernias is high in those who are susceptible.

Hernia mesh implants are designed to prevent reoccurrence and are now used in 90% of hernia repair procedures. These surgical meshes, made from animal tissue fibers or synthetic strands, can provide permanent structural support to the area affected by the hernia.

Though a hernia mesh implant is a common procedure, there are many ways that the implant can fail, resulting in specific symptoms and conditions that could qualify you for a hernia mesh lawsuit.

Do I qualify for a Hernia Mesh Lawsuit?

A hernia mesh lawsuit is built on verifying the complications that can result from the failure of a hernia mesh implant. These could include pain (including chronic or intermittent), mesh movement or shrinkage, infection, bowel obstruction, protrusion, or hernia relapse. Additional complications include fluid buildup around the surgery site, perforation of surrounding tissues, and changes to vessels and organs near the mesh.

Due to these complications, the FDA has made some recalls of certain hernia mesh brands, namely the C-QUR, Max, Parietex Plug, Proceed, Physiomesh, and Bard 3D brands. Check your surgical records with your hospital to find out the brand of mesh you were given, which could increase your eligibility.

You must also determine which party you plan to sue. Your choices in this case are the manufacturer of the mesh, the distributors of the mesh, the doctor who did the surgery, or your healthcare provider. It’s important to decide because the defendant you choose will determine whether your case is a personal injury, malpractice, or product liability claim, all of which have different criteria for eligibility.

How to Tell if Hernia Mesh Failed?

The symptoms discussed above could be the first signs of hernia mesh failure, ranging from feelings of tenderness at the surgical site to life-threatening organ perforations. A bulge at the site is another way to detect a failed hernia mesh.

In most cases, the first line of defense against hernia mesh failure is revision surgery, which gives your healthcare provider the chance to correct the damage caused by the failed implant. Due to the well-known propensity for mesh implants to fail, a hernia mesh lawsuit often requires two revision surgeries before a suit can be filed. This is to prevent an influx of lawsuits that could be corrected by the healthcare provider.

If you feel pain at your surgery site that is greater or different than what your healthcare provider told you to expect, contact the hospital rather than your attorney. Your health should be your first concern in issues involving a failed hernia mesh implant.

What to Know Before You File a Hernia Mesh Lawsuit

Before filing a hernia mesh lawsuit, you will need to gather information related to your specific case. First, you need your complete medical records, including a post-surgery diagnosis of the problems you have been experiencing and records of your revision surgeries. You will also need to verify the manufacturer of your implant and the dates of all relevant treatments.

This information needs to be shared with your attorney, including relevant consent forms. Since everyone’s symptoms are different, an experienced hernia mesh lawyer can review your records with you to ensure that you are eligible for compensation before filing a hernia mesh lawsuit.

How Long Do You Have to File a Hernia Mesh Lawsuit?

As with most personal injury lawsuits, a hernia mesh lawsuit is subject to a statute of limitations. This is the amount of time you have from the onset of your complications to file a claim against the product manufacturer.

Importantly, the statute of limitations differs between states, with the average being four years (some are as low as two). Speak with your attorney about the statute in your state to learn whether you are still eligible for hernia mesh compensation.

If you fail to assemble and file your case before the statute of limitations expires, it doesn’t matter whether you have a winning case. Your case will be considered baseless and dismissed without being compensated.

How Long Does It Take to Settle a Hernia Mesh Lawsuit?

Hernia mesh lawsuits are complicated to settle. Depending on the defendant you choose, multiple expert witness testimonies have to be gathered and corroborated to confirm not only your symptoms but to link them to your hernia mesh surgery.

Due to these issues, a hernia mesh lawsuit takes 3-7 years on average. The main steps of the process start with your initial complaint in court against the defendant after assembling your case with your attorney. Then, the defendant files their response, after which the medical documents and other records you gathered are exchanged between legal teams. This is called the discovery process. After this, the pre-trial motions lead into the trial. Even after settling, a large settlement may be appealed as well.

What is the Average Payout for a Hernia Mesh Lawsuit?

Due to the large range of potential injuries in a hernia mesh lawsuit, the range of compensation amounts is just as large. Based on past settlements, the average range of hernia mesh lawsuit compensation is $50,000 – $1 million. However, some cases can be worth as much as $5 million.

The compensation you receive in your case will depend on many factors. Your medical bills, both in the past and those projected in the future, will be added to your lost wages and reduced earning capacity to find your base compensation amount. This will then be multiplied to a number between 1 and 5 that represents your pain and suffering, which includes depression, loss of relationships, and other personal problems resulting from your hernia mesh injury.

Speak with an experienced attorney to learn how to calculate your settlement amount based on past cases and, if applicable, on the other cases in the class action.

How to Pick a Law Firm for a Hernia Mesh Lawsuit?

Not every lawyer is equally suited to handling your hernia mesh lawsuit. The complex issues involved in your case, which could include personal injury or medical malpractice claims, suggest the need for a firm experienced in similar cases involving failed hernia mesh injuries.

Since the case may have one or multiple defendants and may fall under a class action lawsuit or MDL, finding a versatile law firm to manage the details, schedule, and negotiation of your case is a must. Though you can technically represent yourself, research shows that cases are more successful and compensated more highly when represented by an experienced attorney.

Summary

A hernia mesh lawsuit is complicated to organize and file. You may feel that you deserve compensation due to injuries sustained from a faulty hernia mesh implant, which could include pain, infection, obstruction, protrusion, perforation, and more.

The FDA has recently recalled some major hernia mesh brands, resulting in many people seeking compensation for the injuries they may have caused. An experienced personal injury attorney can help you organize your case and decide who you should sue, which could include the manufacturer and distributor of the mesh or the surgeon who applied it, depending on the nature of your injuries.