A federal jury in West Virginia awarded four plaintiffs $14.5 million in compensatory damages and $4 million in punitive damages in a Boston Scientific TVM case. The jury found Boston Scientific negligently designed the mesh and failed to adequately warn plaintiffs’ surgeons of the risks.
The trial lasted three weeks in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. Plaintiffs alleged that after being implanted with the Obtryx device, they experienced “erosion, mesh contraction, infection, fistula, inflammation, scar tissue, organ perforation, dyspareunia, blood loss, neuropathic and other acute and chronic nerve damage and pain, pudendal nerve damage, pelvic floor damage, and chronic pelvic pain.”
All four plaintiffs established a defective design of the Mesh, Boston Scientific failed to warn their implanting surgeons of the risks, and Boston Scientific was negligent in designing and failing to warn.
The jury awarded each plaintiff $1 million in punitive after finding Boston Scientific’s actions “showed gross fraud, malice, oppression, or wanton, willful or reckless conduct.”
