When Barbara Shepard got the same call a year later at her home in New Hampshire, she thought it was someone from Johnson & Johnson, since that company had made the pelvic mesh she’d had inserted seven years earlier. A school-bus driver who also worked the evening shift at a local light factory, Shepard had trouble controlling her bladder after having two kids. When neither Kegel exercises nor prescription drugs helped, leaving her plagued by accidents and reliant on pads, she opted into having a mesh sling installed. The woman who called Shepard said she needed to have the mesh removed, asked if she had a lawyer, and seemingly offered to cover the cost of the surgery, which would need to be performed at a specific clinic in Florida. She could even bring a friend, whose travel expenses would also be covered.