North suburban medical products supplier Medline Industries Inc. is facing 18 claims from patients stemming from a counterfeit batch of surgical mesh, a sign of the safety challenges faced by the health care industry.
Medline, with annual revenue of $4.7 billion, bought the mesh, typically used in surgeries like hernia repairs, in 2008-09 from Ram Medical Inc., which said it had been made by Murray Hill, N.J.-based C.R. Bard Inc., a well-known surgical device manufacturer, court records show.
