A new lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and its Ethicon unit indicates that the manufacturers concealed significantly dangerous Proceed hernia mesh design defects to boost profits and protect market share.

Robert Esbrandt filed the  lawsuit earlier this month in New Jersey Superior Court. He is naming J&J and Ethicon as defendants, alleging that the patently defective hernia mesh caused painful and permanent injuries. Furthermore, he claims Ethicon and J&J knew the hernia mesh was dangerous but concealed its defects from patients and the medical community.

Proceed Hernia Mesh Allegations

According to Esbrandt, he underwent hernia repair surgery with Proceed hernia mesh in December 2011. However, significant and painful complications soon necessitated revision surgery in February 2013, April 2014 and January 2019 to address his injuries and remove the defective patch.

Esbrandt indicates that J&J and Ethicon knew the mesh was defective and likely to cause horrifically debilitating problems but withheld this information from the medical community.

“Defendants knew that the oxidized regenerated cellulose layer of the Ethicon Multi-Layered Hernia Mesh was ineffective at preventing adhesion formation to the underlying polypropylene of the Proceed before Defendants set out to design the Proceed Ventral Patch in 2006, and even before Defendants set out to design the Proceed Surgical Mesh predicate device in 2003,” Esbrandt’s lawsuit states. “Defendants designed, manufactured, and marketed the Ethicon Multi-Layered Hernia Mesh, despite long-standing knowledge that the materials utilized in the Proceed would cause dense adhesions, chronic pain, mesh shrinkage, bowel obstructions, and early hernia recurrence.”

Esbrandt says that the manufacturers deliberately failed to warn patients and doctors about the real risks of Proceed hernia mesh. They also didn’t perform any clinical trials or studies to ensure that the medical implants were safe or even worked. Despite lawsuits flooding the nation’s courts, the manufacturers continue to sell the hernia mesh without any warnings about the dangers.

Esbrandt joins a quickly growing number of individuals filing similar Ethicon hernia mesh lawsuits across the country. Most lawsuits involve the company’s defective Physiomesh mesh implant. After a massive surge of individuals came forward with horrific and permanent injuries from the defective mesh, J&J and Ethicon quietly pulled the product from the worldwide market rather than issuing a proper recall or notifying patients and doctors of the dangers.