A New Jersey jury on Thursday ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay punitive damages of $7.76 million to a former nurse who blames its vaginal mesh implant for years of ‘‘living hell’’ following unsuccessful repair surgeries.
The award adds to $3.35 million in compensatory damages awarded by the state Superior Court jury Monday, for a total of $11.1 million.
It was the first verdict in about 4,000 lawsuits filed against Johnson & Johnson, which said the decision was not supported by the evidence. It plans to appeal.
The plaintiff, Linda Gross, 47, of Watertown, S.D., testified she had 18 surgeries since having J&J’s Prolift vaginal mesh device implanted in 2006. Severe pain and other complications forced her to stop working.
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The implants are an alternative to hysterectomy or other surgery to repair pelvic organ prolapse, which occurs when an organ droops as muscles supporting it weaken.