Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorney Blog | Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis LLP

The maker of the defective Kugel Mesh Hernia patch will now have to face even more lawsuits over faulty hernia patches. Earlier this month, a federal court charged with hearing all claims related to the Kugel Mesh Hernia patch ruled the proceedings would be expanded to include claims against any of Davol Inc’s defective mesh patches, even those not involved in the original Kugel Mesh Hernia Patch recall.

When it was first introduced, the Kugel Mesh Hernia Patch was heralded as an innovation in hernia treatment. Unfortunately, by 2005, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) was receiving more and more reports of failure with the Kugel patch. The reports were so alarming that the FDA issued a Class I recall of the Bard Composix Kugel Mesh X-Large patch. Apparently, the recoil ring that opened the patch could break. When the ring broke, patients experienced bowel perforations and other serious problems. A Class I recall means that the recalled product poses a serious danger to patients still using it.

The FDA warned doctors to quite using the patch. The FDA also warned patients who received the patch to seek medical attention if they experienced unexplained fever, persistent abdominal pain, or tenderness to the incision site. By February 2007, the Kugel Patch recall had been expanded twice to several other sizes of the device.
The defective Kugel Mesh Hernia Patch spawned so many lawsuits against Davol and Bard, that last fall, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation of the United States Courts consolidated all federal cases regarding the defective Kugel Mesh Hernia Patch and transferred them to the District of Rhode Island for all pretrial proceedings.

If you or a loved one has been harmed by a defective medical device in Philadelphia or anywhere in Pennsylvania, please contact the product liability attorneys at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis today to schedule your initial consultation.