Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnADVERTISEMENTBy Nate Raymond and Dietrich KnauthTue, August 4, 2026 at 8:41 PM GMT+2 3 min readBy Nate Raymond and Dietrich KnauthBOSTON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Medtronic must pay an Alabama man and his wife $88 million, a federal jury decided on Tuesday, in the first case to go to trial out of thousands facing the company from people claiming they were injured by hernia-repair mesh implants made by one of its units.Following a three-week trial in Boston, jurors found that Medtronic's Covidien unit failed to provide an adequate warning about the dangers posed by the mesh implanted in Larry Patterson in 2017, Medtronic and the man's lawyer said. The failure of Patterson's hernia mesh implant required significant reconstructive surgery, according to his complaint. The jury awarded no punitive damages, and it did not find that Covidien engaged in fraud.The verdict was by far the largest in more than a dozen hernia mesh and transvaginal mesh cases that have gone to trial, Patterson's attorney Timothy O'Brien said."This is a very substantial verdict, but it reflects very substantial damages," O'Brien said.Medtronic said it will challenge the verdict in post-trial motions and on appeal."We remain confident in Covidien's hernia mesh products, as over the past two decades these products have been used safely and effectively in millions of patients, and hernia mesh has long been the standard of care for repair of all but the smallest hernia defects," Medtronic said in a statement.TEST CASEPatterson's case is the first bellwether, or test case, to go to trial of thousands of cases against Medtronic, the last major body of litigation over hernia mesh after other companies, including units of Becton Dickinson and Johnson & Johnson, largely settled cases against them.About 10,350 plaintiffs nationally are pursuing cases against Medtronic alleging they were harmed after being implanted with products from hernia lines that include Parietex, ProGrip and Symbotex.Most of the cases against Medtronic are in Massachusetts, where about 7,450 plaintiffs have pending lawsuits in state court. Another 2,400 lawsuits are consolidated in a federal case before a single judge in Boston, including Patterson's.He was implanted with a Symbotex mesh during a 2017 hernia repair operation and claims it eventually caused him to suffer a bowel obstruction necessitating another operation in 2020.His lawyers argued that doctors, including Patterson's surgeon, were never warned about a potential risk posed by a key safety feature of Covidien's product — a collagen coating intended to act as a barrier and prevent bare polyester mesh from being exposed to intestines while abdominal lining regrows.Terms and Privacy PolicyEU DSA contactPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore Info