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<\/p>\nExclusive: How much is their suffering worth?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the $105 million question to which thousands of Australian women have spent more than five years waiting for an answer.<\/p>\n
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Karen Atkinson, pictured before and after her mesh was removed.\u00a0Karen Atkinson<\/p>\n
For the 2600 women involved in the massive class action lawsuit<\/a> against medical manufacturer Boston Scientific over its pelvic mesh devices, the wait is finally over.\u00a0<\/p>\n Over the past few months, class action members have been receiving their final individual notices of assessment outlining the total compensation they will be awarded for their lifelong injuries.<\/p>\n Several women have told nine.com.au<\/a> that they are unhappy with the result, and the final figure has come as a gut-wrenching blow.\u00a0<\/p>\n In March 2021, Shine Lawyers launched the class action in the Federal Court, alleging that Boston Scientific\u2019s implants were defective and carried severe, unadvertised risks of complications.\u00a0<\/p>\n The mesh devices were designed to treat pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, as was exposed during a harrowing 2018 Senate inquiry, the implants left thousands of women enduring permanent, catastrophic complications, including agonising nerve damage, entangled organs, chronic infections, and eroded tissue.<\/p>\n Do you have a story? Contact reporter Emily McPherson at emcpherson@nine.com.au.<\/p>\n By July 2022, Shine Lawyers and Boston Scientific struck a $105 million settlement deal, hammered out on a strict \u201cno fault\u201d basis.\u00a0<\/p>\n The agreement came just months before global giant Johnson & Johnson and Ethicon settled a separate, similar mesh class action for a monumental $300 million – a landmark case first brought by Shine in 2012 that became the largest women\u2019s health class action in Australian history.\u00a0<\/p>\n Unlike the Johnson & Johnson resolution, Boston Scientific\u2019s settlement included no admission of liability. <\/p>\n The manufacturer continues to maintain that it stands by the quality and safety of its products.<\/p>\n In both historic class actions, the final payouts are highly variable, tailored to each member\u2019s specific medical and financial circumstances.\u00a0<\/p>\n Settled over three instalments, the first two payments have already been distributed.\u00a0<\/p>\n JGA Saddler, the law firm administering the settlement scheme, is now in the process of contacting members with their final total compensation estimates, with the third and final instalment scheduled to be paid in mid-2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n But as the true mathematics of the settlement come to light, the initial relief has curdled into widespread fury and heartbreak.<\/p>\n \u2018They are using ill people as a business model\u2019<\/p>\n For Lake Macquarie mother Karen Atkinson, the reality of her assessment notice was a shock.\u00a0<\/p>\n She was implanted with a mesh device in 2016, during a routine procedure for fibroids, after her gynaecologist casually suggested it as a preventative measure.<\/p>\n \u201cHe said to me, \u2018Well, you\u2019re not getting any younger, and as you get older everything gets a bit looser, so while I\u2019m there, how about I put this in?\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI woke up in tremendous pain.\u201d<\/p>\n Atkinson said her life rapidly spiralled into a medical nightmare dominated by a severe systemic foreign body response.<\/p>\n \u201cI was very sick from the mesh,\u201d Atkinson said. <\/p>\n \u201cA lot of things happened in my body that didn\u2019t have an explanation.\u201d<\/p>\n The Boston Scientific class action led to a settlement of $105 million.\u00a0Boston Scientific<\/p>\n Six weeks after the initial surgery, severe bleeding led doctors to remove her uterus, mistakenly believing it was the source of the problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n But her health continued to deteriorate. <\/p>\n She developed a chronic lung condition, endured horrendous pain radiating down her leg, and suffered cognitive decline and vision loss.<\/p>\n Atkinson eventually had the device removed in 2018, and said she witnessed a near-instantaneous reversal of her systemic symptoms.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her hair stopped falling out, her fragile skin began to heal, and her memory and eyesight returned.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, Atkinson said she was still left with a permanent lung condition and joint inflammation.<\/p>\n During the court approval process for the $105 million proposed settlement, Federal Court Judge Michael Lee asked for lawyers to examine Atkinson\u2019s case as a benchmark for damages.\u00a0<\/p>\n A checklist formula initially valued her claim at $320,000, before dropping it to $280,000.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember the judge pulling a face and going, \u2018Okay, that\u2019s not too bad,\u2019\u201d Atkinson recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBut I wrote an email to Justice Lee afterwards and said, \u2018I really don\u2019t believe that\u2019s how much I\u2019ll end up with. I believe that Shine are just giving you that number to get you to pass it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Her scepticism was justified. <\/p>\n When Atkinson\u2019s final assessment notice arrived in March, it revealed a total of just $75,000. <\/p>\n When she called the firm to demand answers for the massive discrepancy, she was told the criteria had changed.<\/p>\n Worse still, the paperwork made it clear that any woman wishing to dispute their assessment may need to pay an extra fee, and a review came with the risk that their payout could actually go down.<\/p>\n \u201cI succumbed, and I just accepted it because I couldn\u2019t risk losing any more money,\u201d Atkinson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cClass actions are designed to make lawyers rich, and they just use the vulnerabilities of people for their payday.\u00a0<\/p>\n Atkinson said while she had no problem with lawyers getting paid for their work, it seemed like Shine was too eager to settle and avoid going to trial in the Boston Scientific class action.<\/p>\n \u201cAll they wanted to do was work out what their costs were, cover it, and then give us what\u2019s left \u2026 They are using ill people as a business model,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Court documents show Shine\u2019s legal costs, deducted from the $105 million settlement pool were about $7.5 million, while the law firm appointed as administrators of the settlement scheme took about $5 million.<\/p>\n Millions more must be clawed back from the remaining fund to pay statutory recoveries to Medicare and private health insurers for the victims\u2019 extensive medical treatments.<\/p>\n Craig Allsopp, Shine Lawyers head of class actions, told nine.com.au<\/a>: \u201cShine secured a $105 million settlement in the Boston Scientific matter, which was filed on 22 March 2021 and settled by 16 March 2023, which is a swift timeframe to achieve a resolution for any class action.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2308cff4de06ea4dabfcc0d399c5fa0d9ec81069.jpeg\")
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