But Justice deferred
Health Issues Centre has welcomed today’s judgement vindicating the more than 1300 mesh injured women who were parties to the Shine class action against Johnson & Johnson but reserved judgement on the outcome until the size of the final settlement is announced.
“The average US pay-out on mesh Class Actions has been around US$68,000 and this has been manifestly inadequate” according to CEO Danny Vadasz.
“Apart from their accumulated out of pocket costs for consequent medical procedures and to manage their injuries, the costs of participating in the current class action have resulted in a legacy of financial burden.
“Specialist reports, access to medical records and fees for lodging legal proceedings add up to thousands of dollars and that’s before the lawyers take their not inconsiderable fees.”
“Even if the pay-out covers the costs of what could be lifelong treatment, it isn’t going to compensate for lost opportunity, curtailed careers and damaged relationships.”
“We can only hope that all this is taken into account when the court determines the appropriate level of compensation”.
Vadasz noted that total global pay outs to mesh litigants has reached $8 billion. Despite this manufacturers continue to manufacture and market mesh products.
“Clearly manufacturers have incorporated the consequences of litigation as one of the costs of doing business. We hope the Court keeps this in mind when it determines the compensation owed to women whose lives have been compromised by this immoral business model.
“We applaud the court findings other than the characterisation of the actions of Johnson & Johnson as “negligent”. Negligence suggests carelessness whereas J&J is culpable due to its wilful disregard of decades of evidence that their Ethicon device was responsible for numerous reports of adverse impact. What we have witnessed is unethical not negligent.
“We call on the Government, through its regulatory agent the TGA to ensure that innocent people are never again left hostage to the unscrupulous greed of medical device manufacturers.
View ABC’s interview with Health Issues Centre’s CEO, Danny Vadasz below.
