Covidien Parietex Hernia Patch Caused Bowel Obstruction: Lawsuit

The bowel obstruction caused by the Covidien Parietex hernia patch required two revision surgeries and a long recovery period, the lawsuit claims

A registered nurse has filed a product liability lawsuit over problems with the Covidien Parietex hernia patch, indicating that an unreasonably dangerous and defective design led to a bowel obstruction and the need for multiple hernia revision surgeries.

The complaint (PDF) was filed by Edgar Oliver in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on June 23, pursuing claims against Covidien, its parent company, Medtronic, and Tyco Health Group as defendants.

Covidien Parietex is a two-sided hernia patch, which has been commonly used in recent years during certain ventral hernia repair surgeries. The composite mesh is coated with a protective, absorbable collagen barrier that is intended to prevent tissue attachment. However, the lawsuit alleges this barrier and other design elements, including the use of polyester, actually result in a high rate of failure and complications with the hernia patch.

According to allegations raised in the Covidien Parietex patch lawsuit, the product was defective due to high rates of failure, injury and complications reported by individuals nationwide, indicating that the hernia mesh fails to perform as intended and requires frequent and often debilitating re-operations.

Oliver is a registered nurse, and indicates that he underwent umbilical hernia repair surgery in November 2014. At that time, he was implanted with a Parietex Composite Ventral Patch. However, just two years later, he began to suffer severe abdominal pain and was diagnosed with a bowel obstruction in November 2016. Doctors found extremely dense and inflamed adhesions on his abdominal wall, which were too thick to surgically address at the time.

A knot in his small bowel had to be cut out, along with the Parietex patch. However, following a long period of recuperation, Oliver had to undergo surgery again in February 2018 due to an incarcerated incisional hernia related to the first revision surgery, at which time he was hospitalized for six days and had to undergo eight weeks of recuperation at home.

“Defendants’ Parietex Composite Ventral Patch is a defective product,” the lawsuit states. “The Parietex Composite Ventral Patch contains polyester. Polyester is more likely to cause severe inflammation than polypropylene, and polyester is not as strong as polypropylene.”

The complaint raises claims similar to those presented in a number of other Covidien Parietex hernia patch lawsuits being pursued by individuals who have experienced problems associated with the design.

In addition to claims over problems with Parietex mesh, there are also a number of similar allegations being raised in complaints filed over other hernia repair products sold over the past decade, including Bard hernia mesh lawsuits, Atrium C-Qur lawsuits and Ethicon Physiomesh lawsuits.

Claims involving each of those hernia mesh products have since been consolidated in the federal court system, as part of different multidistrict litigations (MDLs). The Covidien hernia mesh lawsuits were centralized earlier this month before U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris in the District of Massachusetts.