More Defective Synthetic Mesh with Bard Avaulta

Ormond Beach, FLWhen will Bard stop messing around with people's lives and stop making mesh products, including kugel mesh and Avaulta mesh?

The latest recall by Bard is its XenMatrix surgical mesh, although this product is made from pig tissue. Apparently, this current problem is caused by the testing mechanism, unlike the synthetic mesh that comprises the Avaulta product, which has caused irreparable damage to thousands of women and subsequently triggered Bard Avaulta lawsuits. Or the Kugel Mesh hernia repair patches, which were recalled in 2005 and 2006, and led to settlement offers of about $184 million in approximately 2,600 lawsuits that claimed serious complications caused by the Composix Kugel Mesh patch.

Experts believe that the Bard Avaulta surgical mesh design inhibits surrounding tissue from receiving nutrients and oxygen, causing impaired healing. This can lead to complications that may require further surgery. According to medical device expert Lana Keeton, the type of synthetic mesh used in the Bard Avaulta is a life-threatening device. "It is toxic, over-engineered and degrades during manufacture, shelf life and in the human body following surgical implantation,” she says.

Currently, lawsuits are being filed against the Avaulta TVM mesh implant, but attorneys are also looking at claims concerning the Bard mesh patch used for hernia repair.

"I had the Bard mesh implanted in my lower right abdomen when I had hernia repair back in January 2000 and it has given me no end of complications ever since," says Julia Regan. "According to my medical records, I had two big patches implanted by the standard procedure, but I had pain right after surgery, and the pain never stopped. And I have been dealing with massive infections throughout my entire body."

Regan says she has taken massive doses of antibiotics over the years and has had three subsequent surgeries in an attempt to remove the mesh.

"The more the surgeries cut away, the more adhesions they found, and the mesh disintegrated and moved around my body," says Regan. She had surgery for a simple incontinence problem, and regrets the day—her problems that have spanned more than a decade far surpass incontinence issues.

"I don't blame my surgeon since I went online and read about other patients with Bard mesh complaints and it is like they are telling my story," she says. "I believe my surgeon didn't know better, but since 2005, people have been figuring out that this synthetic mesh is wrong; this mesh shouldn't be put anywhere in your body. I can hardly believe this Avaulta mesh is still on the market.

"Now I am supposed to have another surgery but I had a heart attack in 2008, and I think it is related to all these infections. So how can I get the mesh removed with a serious heart condition? Before my heart attack, I saw pain doctors, neurologists and more—no one admitted it was defective. But now the FDA got Bard to admit it. I know it is likely too late for me to file a lawsuit against Bard, but at least I can tell others about my plight and warn them never to have this mesh implanted in your body."