Hernia Surgery Malpractice Lawsuit Cleared To Move Forward Over Botched Procedure

Judge rejected motion to dismiss a Georgia woman’s medical malpractice lawsuit over hernia surgery, indicating that the statute of limitations had not expired by the time the claim was brought.

A U.S. District Judge has allowed a hernia surgery malpractice lawsuit to move forward, involving claims brought by a Georgia woman who lost 90% of her stomach as a result of a botched procedure, even though the complaint was brought more than two years after the surgical complications occurred.

The complaint (PDF) was originally filed by Vanetris J. Carter in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in November 2023, pursuing claims against Dr. Jonathan Wallace, Suburban Surgical Care Specialists, S.C., Alexian Brothers Medical Center, and Elk Grove Village as defendants.

According to the lawsuit, Wallace performed a hernia repair surgery on Carter in August 2021, implanting a surgical mesh product in her body. Following the surgery, Wallace told Carter she would require about six weeks to heal from the procedure.

However, Carter developed severe stomach trouble and pain, which Wallace told her was normal, even though she was still experiencing problems beyond the six-week recovery period. Following an emergency room visit in November due to dry heaves, Carter was hospitalized for several days.

Doctors conducted an exploratory surgery to see what was wrong with her stomach. When she woke from the procedure, Carter discovered she had lost 90% of her stomach.

The Defendants claimed that Carter’s lawsuit should be barred based on the two-year statute of limitations in Illinois, indicating that the complaint was brought too long after the alleged hernia surgery mistakes occurred. 

The Illinois statute of limitations gives plaintiffs a two-year window to file a civil lawsuit, based off when the plaintiff knew or should have known the cause of their injuries. The medical providers argued that the clock started in August 2021, but Carter’s lawsuit indicates she was misled by her doctor until at least November of that year.

In a Memorandum Opinion and Order (PDF) issued on March 6, U.S. District Judge LaShona A. Hunt rejected the motion to dismiss and cleared the lawsuit to move forward.

“Taking Carter’s allegations as true – as the Court must at the pleading stage – the Court finds that Carter sufficiently alleged that her injuries were wrongly caused by Defendants and she first became aware of this on November 8,” Judge Hunt wrote. “Carter’s complaint outlines a series of assurances from Defendants that her recovery was going well.”

Her lawsuit presents claims of medical negligence, negligence and negligent supervision.

Hernia Mesh Lawsuits

While Carter’s claims involve allegations of malpractice during the hernia surgery, it comes as medical device manufacturers continue to face a number of hernia mesh lawsuits alleging that certain products sold in recent years were defective and unreasonably dangerous.

There are currently more than 1,600 Covidien hernia mesh lawsuits pending in federal courts nationwide, each raising similar allegations that patients suffered painful and debilitating complications caused by defectively designed implants, such as Covidien’s Parietex, Symbotex and other hernia mesh products.

Since 2022, a Covidien hernia mesh multidistrict litigation (MDL) has been established in the District of Massachusetts, where U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris is currently presiding over coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

In other litigation involving similar polypropylene mesh products, lawyers reached agreements to settle Ethicon Physiomesh lawsuits and Atrium C-Qur lawsuits before any claims went to trial. A global Bard hernia mesh settlement was announced last year, resolving more than 21,000 claims, following mixed results in a series of bellwether trials held.