The urgent hospitalization of the wife of a key witness prompted a federal judge to indefinitely postpone a bellwether trial in the multi-district litigation over C.R. Bard‘s (NYSE:BCR) recalled Avaulta pelvic mesh.

Dr. Donald Ostergard, a California obstetrician and gynecologist billed in court documents as " a crucial witness for the plaintiff in the case," Carolyn Jones v. C.R. Bard, was unable to make the trip East for the scheduled 1st day of the trial today, according to court documents.

"Plaintiff and her counsel have been diligent in preparing this case for trial, and were present and ready for trial in Charleston, West Virginia when they received the urgent news from 1 of their primary witnesses in the case. A continuance will address the need for Dr. Ostergard to attend to his wife’s emergent medical needs," according to the documents. "Counsel for plaintiffs has discussed the unfortunate circumstances involving Dr. Ostergard with counsel for C.R. Bard and C.R. Bard informs counsel for plaintiff that it will not oppose the requested continuance."

Judge Joseph Goodwin of the U.S. District Court for Southern Western Virginia granted the continuance Jan. 8 and slated the trial to be rescheduled "for a date to be determined," court records show.

Earlier this week Goodwin ruled that Bard won’t be able to keep internal memos out of the trial.

Bard had asked to exclude 6 memos written by Bobby Orr, head of Bard’s Advanced Surgical Concepts division, in 2008 and 2009 discussing various options and materials that could be used to make new pelvic mesh products. The medical device company argued that the memos should not be allowed as evidence in the jury trial of Carolyn Jones v. C.R. Bard because they were written after Jones was implanted with the Avaulta Plus mesh "and are therefore not relevant to Plaintiff’s design defect claim," according to court documents.