Kern Jury Awards $5.5M Over Incontinence Device
A Kern County jury has awarded $5.5 million to a woman who sued the manufacturer of a type of surgical mesh often used to treat urinary incontinence in women of post child-bearing age.
The Bakersfield Californian reported that the jury held Georgia-based C.R. Bard Inc. responsible for the pain and health problems 53-year-old Christine Scott suffered after she was implanted with the company’s Avaulta Plus Biosynthetic Support System in 2008.
Bard no longer sells the material, which is implanted through a patient’s vagina to support her internal organs, in the United States. The company issued a statement saying it plans to appeal the jury’s verdict.
Scott’s lawsuit was the first of hundreds of product liability cases involving Bard and manufacturers of similar synthetic organ slings to go to trial.