Bakersfield, Calif. — A California state court jury socked Johnson & Johnson's Ethicon unit with a $5.7 million verdict on Thursday in a bellwether pelvic mesh trial, finding the “TVT Abbrevo” sling system was defectively designed and that the company failed to adequately warn patients and doctors of the product’s risks.

Bakersfield - Opening statements in a bellwether product liability suit alleging Johnson & Johnson's Ethicon unit designed a defective pelvic mesh product and withheld knowledge of the mesh's health risks began Monday in California state court.

Plaintiff Coleen Perry’s suit is the first case involving Ethicon’s “TVT-Abbrevo” sling system to be decided by a jury out of tens of thousands of pelvic mesh suits filed in state and federal court across the country. Perry had the device implanted in 2011 to treat a bladder problem called stress urinary incontinence, according to her complaint. Perry’s suit claims she later suffered painful side effects after her immune system reacted to the device’s propylene mesh and it eroded through her vaginal tissue.