Law prof's new book details pelvic mesh litigation scandal that 'shocked the mass tort world'
Elizabeth Chamblee Burch is a professor at the University of Georgia School of Law. (Photo courtesy of the University of Georgia School of Law)
A new book by a professor at the University of Georgia School of Law unravels a tale of scheming and manipulation behind a notorious mass tort litigation case involving the pelvic mesh that "shocked the mass tort world."
The story is documented in The Pain Brokers: How Con Men, Call Centers, and Rogue Doctors Fuel America’s Lawsuit Factory, scheduled for release Tuesday by Elizabeth Chamblee Burch, a professor at the Georgia law school and an expert in mass torts, Law.com reports.
The “nefarious scheme” involved call centers luring potential patients to doctors’ offices and forcing them to undergo unnecessary surgeries to remove transvaginal meshes that were implanted in women to relieve urinary incontinence.
The women were persuaded to take out high-interest medical loans, rather than use their health insurance, and become plaintiffs who sued device manufacturers for much higher damages than if they hadn’t gotten the devices removed.
“The number of people who profited off these women is just astronomical,” Burch said in an interview with Law.com. “The women themselves got little to nothing. It kind of blows your mind.”
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