THE VERDICT THAT SOUNDED THE ALARM

An $ 88 million award in the first Covidien hernia mesh bellwether gives thousands of pending plaintiffs their first jury data— and Medtronic a result it cannot easily dismiss.

After years of coordinated discovery, expert work, case selection, and trial preparation, the first federal bellwether in the Covidien hernia mesh litigation ended with a number that immediately changed the complexion of the MDL: $ 88 million.

On August 4, 2026, a federal jury in Boston awarded $ 77 million to Larry Patterson and another $ 11 million to his wife, Tammy Patterson, for loss of consortium. The jury found that Covidien failed to adequately warn physicians about and concealed the risks associated with the Symbotex Composite Mesh implanted in Patterson during a 2017 hernia repair procedure.

54 The Trial Lawyer