Jimmy Warren’s lawsuit alleges that design flaws in the Kugel hernia patch caused him to develop severe abdominal pain which required a bowel dissection surgery to repair.

Davol was forced to recall several larger models of the Kugel mesh patch because the “memory-recoil ring” which surrounds the device and holds it in place can frequently break after it is implanted. Broken hernia patches can lead to a number of painful and potentially deadly conditions, including bowel obstruction, bowel perforation, infection and chronic enteric fistulas.

According to his hernia patch lawsuit, Warren was implanted with a Kugel mesh patch in January 2004 during surgery to repair a hernia. After he began to develop painful abdominal tenderness, Warren was forced to undergo another surgery to repair a second hernia which had developed.

During this surgery, doctors discovered a piece of the original hernia patch lodged in his bowel wall; in order to remove the broken piece, he underwent a lengthy bowel dissection. Although doctors were successful in removing the broken pieces of the Kugel mesh patch, Warren still suffers from painful bowel inflammation.

In his lawsuit, Warren’s hernia patch attorney alleges that Davol and its parent company, C.R. Bard, Inc., were aware of the health risks that patients could face by using the Kugel hernia patch, yet waited until many had been injured before issuing the first hernia patch recall.