The plaintiff, Larry Patterson, was implanted with a Symbotex mesh during a 2017 hernia repair operation and claims it eventually caused him to suffer a bowel obstruction necessitating another operation in 2020.
Timothy O’Brien, a lawyer for Patterson at Levin, Papantonio, Proctor, Buchanan, O’Brien, Barr & Mougey, in his opening statement told jurors that doctors including Patterson's surgeon were never warned about a potential risk posed by a key safety feature of Covidien's polyester mesh.
That safety feature is a collagen coating that is intended to act as a barrier and prevent bare polyester mesh from being exposed to intestines while abdominal lining regrows. Symbotex's coating was made from pig, a shift from the past use of bovine collagen.
O'Brien said that sales staff told doctors the coating would last for 30 days as had been the experience with bovine collagen, but the company knew that the porcine collagen would be absorbed in seven days, which for Patterson and other patients was not enough time to avoid complications.
"No one will darken that door, come into court, and say we told Larry Patterson's surgeon it will go away in a week and he implanted it anyway," O'Brien said.
Lyn Pruitt, a lawyer for Medtronic at DLA Piper, countered that the coating worked as designed. She urged jurors to question whether other factors could have led to Patterson's injury, which she noted occurred three years after the mesh was implanted.
She argued the evidence would show that the mesh was not what caused Patterson's bowel obstruction but that he had suffered a hernia recurrence, which he was at increased risk of developing as a result of surgical decisions and factors such as obesity and diabetes.
“I want you to know this design did what it is supposed to do," Pruitt said.
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