By Nate Raymond

BOSTON, July 15 (Reuters) - Medical device manufacturer Medtronic MDT.N went on trial on Wednesday in the first case to reach a jury out of thousands of lawsuits by people who claim they were injured by defective hernia-repair mesh implants made by its Covidien unit.

Lawyers for the company and an Alabama resident who was implanted with Covidien-made mesh in 2017 sparred before a federal jury in Boston over whether the product was to blame for his injuries, in a so-called bellwether trial that could help shape the outcome of similar lawsuits facing Medtronic.

About 10,350 other plaintiffs nationally are pursuing similar claims against Medtronic alleging they were harmed after being implanted with products from hernia lines that include Parietex, ProGrip and Symbotex.

Other hernia mesh manufacturers have faced similar cases, most of which have settled. Most of the cases against Medtronic are in Massachusetts, where about 7,450 plaintiffs have pending lawsuits in state court. Another 2,400 lawsuits are consolidated in federal multidistrict litigation before U.S. District Judge Patti Saris, who is presiding over the trial that started Wednesday.

The plaintiff, Larry Patterson, was implanted with a Symbotex mesh during a 2017 hernia repair operation and claims it eventually caused him to suffer a bowel obstruction necessitating another operation in 2020.

Timothy O’Brien, a lawyer for Patterson at Levin, Papantonio, Proctor, Buchanan, O’Brien, Barr & Mougey, in his opening statement told jurors that doctors including Patterson's surgeon were never warned about a potential risk posed by a key safety feature of Covidien's polyester mesh.

That safety feature is a collagen coating that is intended to act as a barrier and prevent bare polyester mesh from being exposed to intestines while abdominal lining regrows. Symbotex's coating was made from pig, a shift from the past use of bovine collagen.

O'Brien said that sales staff told doctors the coating would last for 30 days as had been the experience with bovine collagen, but the company knew that the porcine collagen would be absorbed in seven days, which for Patterson and other patients was not enough time to avoid complications.

"No one will darken that door, come into court, and say we told Larry Patterson's surgeon it will go away in a week and he implanted it anyway," O'Brien said.

Lyn Pruitt, a lawyer for Medtronic at DLA Piper, countered that the coating worked as designed. She urged jurors to question whether other factors could have led to Patterson's injury, which she noted occurred three years after the mesh was implanted.

She argued the evidence would show that the mesh was not what caused Patterson's bowel obstruction but that he had suffered a hernia recurrence, which he was at increased risk of developing as a result of surgical decisions and factors such as obesity and diabetes.

“I want you to know this design did what it is supposed to do," Pruitt said.

The trial is expected to last three to four weeks.

The case is Patterson v. Covidien Inc, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, No. 1:22-cv-10153.

For the plaintiff: Timothy O’Brien of Levin, Papantonio, Proctor, Buchanan, O’Brien, Barr & Mougey

For Medtronic: Lyn Pruitt of DLA Piper