Oct 1st, 2013 | By Jane Akre | Category: Media Reports FiDA highlight and comment below
The Sunday Mail
Scotland is making changes in
the way the public is warned about transvaginal mesh.
The Scottish Parliament set up a
transvaginal mesh working group in May 2013. Last week the TVM working group
met with the Minister for Health and Well Being.
Scotland’s Health Minister Alex
Neil has ordered the National Health Service to warn women about
transvaginal mesh surgery after a series of reports in the Sunday Mail
about the “horrific complications” suffered by hundreds of patients.
“Officials
will produce revised consent forms and information leaflets within two weeks.
The move follows our campaign revealing how women have been crippled and maimed by polypropylene mesh
implanted during surgery meant to help bladder and prolapse problems.”
Mr. Neil made the announcement
with five mesh victims and vowed that all health boards will be asked to use
these new forms. A leaflet will be given to all women considering surgery with
mesh. The Sunday Mail reports it has received contacts from more than 300
people who tell “how their lives were destroyed by the implants.”
Ironically
there have been only six reports of complications by doctors in Scotland to
United Kingdom’s version of the FDA, the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory
Agency.
Neil says “clearly the system
isn’t working. Doctors
aren’t compelled to report adverse incidents to the MHRA.”
Anti-mesh campaigners are calling for an implant register
to record procedures involving implantable medical devices such as mesh, breast
implants and hip replacements. The European Union was recently rocked by
the PIP breast implant scandal where a French manufacturer was using
industrial grade silicone to fill breast implants. The government has had to
step in and pay for implant removal surgeries.
Drs. Raz, Margolis Help
Dr. Michael Thomas Margolis of Bay Area
Pelvic Surgery and Dr. Shlomo Raz, a urologist from UCLA added their comments
to the proceedings. Dr. Margolis wrote a letter to Minister Alex Neil and DR.
Raz commented by email. Here is
the letter.
Dr. Margolis is a
surgeon in the area of female pelvic reconstruction. He’s been removing mesh
implants since the mid 1990’s and now removes two a week. He reports
complications include injuries to the bladder, bowel, blood vessels and vagina.
He told the parliament he’s
treated “patients with vaginal mesh erosion, chronic complications of
mesh including chronic infection, chronic scarring, chronic pain, morbid disfigurement and loss of function of the vagina.” Many marriages are
ended by the mesh issue, he says.
Dr. Raz reported that partial mesh removals do
not work for pain “It must be removed completely. Ultrasound is the only test
that shows mesh. No other imaging will show it.”
“In the last 6 years we have
removed more than 500 mesh complications. 70% of the patients are improved or
cured while 30% are
permanent disabled from the mesh including vaginal pain, leg pain, pain
during intercourse. We
remove all the mesh. This is the only hope for patients with complications from
mesh,” Dr. Raz wrote in an email.
The working group in Scotland
is making positive progress, say advocates, as are colleagues in England
that recently met with Lord Howe at Westminster in London. #
Learn More:
Scottish
Parliament News Release, September 27, 2013
http://www.theparliament.com/latest-news/article/newsarticle/meps-vote-for-tougher-controls-on-medical-devices/#.UkgJb4akoZ6
Facebook Scottish Mesh
Survivors
https://www.facebook.com/karen.neil.16503
http://meshmedicaldevicenewsdesk.com/media-reports/transvaginal-mesh-warnings-to-be-strengthened-in-scotland-at-the-urging-of-mesh-injured/
Tags: chromic
complications, chronic pain,
chronic scarring,
disabled
comoplications, Dr. Michael
Margolis, Dr. Shlomo Raz,
infection
erosion, leg pain,
mesh removal,
morbid
disfigurement, National Health
Service, pain during
intercourse, PIP breast
implants, Scottish
Parliament, the Sunday Mail,
transvaginal
mesh injuries, ultrasound,
vagina,
vaginal pain
Joleen Chambers says:
Bravo Scotland!
Valuing harmed patients and validating their stories by direct corrective
action will save lives and the healthcare budget of your nation. In the U.S.
the overly entitled medical device cartel is now holding our country hostage in
a budget funding shut down to force changes in the Affordable Care Act to eliminate
the paltry 2.3% tax. The U.S. FDA was the gold standard of regulation until it
was infiltrated by industry influences, defunded to a level of irrelevance and
ignored by legislators that could have progressively adapted laws to reflect
the advancement of profiteering by this industry and updating the FDA/CDRH
charter.
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