Johnson & Johnson was ordered by a California jury to pay $5.7 million to a woman who said one of the company’s Abbrevo vaginal-mesh implants eroded inside her, forcing her to have surgery, in the first verdict over that device.
Jurors in state court in Bakersfield deliberated for more than three days before concluding Thursday that J&J’s Abbrevo mesh sling was defectively designed and officials of J&J’s Ethicon unit failed to properly warn doctors and consumers about the device’s risks. The panel awarded Coleen Perry $700,000 in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages over the mishandling of the device.
