POLITICIANS
joined victims and experts yesterday to demand the
immediate suspension of mesh implants as figures reveal hundreds of women suffered horrific side
effects – not just six as ministers claimed.
The call comes as lawyers prepare to lodge the biggest medical claim
in Scottish legal history, with 400 victims set to sue the implant
manufacturers and the NHS.
Pressure was mounting on Health Secretary
Alex Neil over the scandal – first exposed by the Sunday Mail in March – after
his officials
were accused of understating the number of women who endured
terrible pain caused by the transvaginal
mesh.
Yesterday, Labour’s health spokesman Neil
Findlay said: “The Scottish Government do not appear to have a clue what is
going on.
“Heath officials told us just six women had been reported
as suffering adverse effects, therefore mesh was safe to use to treat
stress incontinence and pelvic prolapse.
“But figures from individual health boards
across Scotland confirm almost 300 victims are showing such severe
complications that
surgeons are trying to remove the mesh.
“Two health boards are still to release
figures so the final toll is likely to be many more.
“We must suspend mesh procedures until we
know the true picture.
“The burden the NHS now face legally, as
well as trying to treat those with life changing complications, is
catastrophic.”
Government
figures state just 2915 women have been given implants since 2007 but figures
from health boards suggest at least 8077 women have had the surgery.
While the procedure was successful in many
cases, some women were left with a legacy of crippling pain and have been
forced to endure years of worry and further surgery.
Medical
experts warn it can take years for the complications to emerge.
Lawyer Cameron Fyfe intends to use laws
designed to allow asbestos victims to claim compensation without showing
immediate physical damage.
He said: “We are so confident, we are
proceeding on a no-win, no-fee basis so victims need not worry about the
difficulties of trying to claim legal aid.
“The
claim against manufacturers will state mesh was deficient and not fit for
purpose.
“Claims against the NHS will be that they
did not properly inform patients of all the risks or offer alternative
treatment in many cases.
“Many were unaware mesh implants are
supposed to be permanent. Others fear they have a timebomb inside them.”
Victims
have had to undergo up to a dozen operations as doctors battle to remove mesh
designed to merge with a patient’s tissue.
Complications range from pain during
intercourse to bowel and bladder perforations, crippling nerve damage, lifelong
pain and mobility problems.
Manufacturers
claimed mesh was soft but evidence shows that it can harden inside the body and
damage tissue and organs.
In
one test sample of a mesh product, almost one in four showed bladder
perforations.
In
another test of almost 700 women, a third developed complications.
One of the world’s top specialists in the
field wrote to Neil, imploring him to stop the use of the controversial
products.
US
professor Tom Margolis said: “The use of transvaginal polypropylene mesh for
the treatment of prolapse and incontinence must stop immediately.
“There are a host of traditional surgical
procedures available which have a zero mesh complication rate.”
The Health Secretary claims banning mesh
ops may leave the Scottish Government open to legal action from manufacturers.
But Lothians MSP Findlay said: “Despite
being alerted to the crisis nine months ago, Alex Neil has done nothing more
than pay victims lip service while the numbers and seriousness of the situation
have been obscured.
“As it is quite clear the government have
no idea how many women are affected, they must issue a suspension notice on use
of transvaginal mesh products until a public inquiry can establish the facts.
“Victims
asked Neil to create a Scottish register and legally compel doctors to report
adverse reactions to these products so we can get a true picture of the depth
of this scandal.
“But although UK medical watchdog the MHRA
have said Scotland has the power to do both things, he has refused to do so.
“When victims asked him to suspend the use
of mesh products until an inquiry takes place, Alex Neil told them he feared legal action by
manufacturers.
“Is he really prepared to put the quality
of women’s lives at risk for the sake of offending manufacturers? Surely not.”
Last month, we revealed NHS officials knew four years
ago that patients were not being fully informed of all the risks involved with
mesh implant surgery. When Neil met victims in May, he promised that GPs
would be contacted to inform them of all the possible side effects and every
patient would be told which implant they have received.
But yesterday campaigner Elaine Holmes,
49, said: “We’re still waiting.
“GPs are still unaware of all the side
effects to look out for and women are still not being told the truth about a
device that can change their lives forever.
“If
people were told the truth, nobody would consent to having these implants.”
The Scottish Government have denied that
they have deliberately played down the number of women affected by the mesh
scandal.
A spokesman said: “It is not possible to
compare numbers without examining what questions health boards were asked or
which procedures they were reporting on.”
Leslie McGlinchey was just 29 when she had
the operation which doctors promised would change her life.
Yesterday, the mum-of-two said: “It did
change my life. Because of what they did to me, I’m in a wheelchair until I
die.”
She said: “When I think about it now, I
could weep. I’d had a couple of ‘accidents’ when I was running about daft with
the kids. When I told my doctor, she said, ‘Why not get treatment?’
“The specialist said it was a routine operation,
and I’d be back on my feet in a couple of days. It
all sounded so simple.
“I didn’t realise they were going to
implant a permanent mesh tape device which would cause so much pain and nerve
damage, I’d end up crippled
and in a wheelchair.
“If I’d known any one of the things I now
know about mesh, I would never have agreed to surgery.
“When I woke up after the op, I was in
agony but the nurses told me not to worry as some pain was normal.
“I was discharged from hospital the next
day still in agony and I’ve now lost count of how many times I’ve had to go
back.
“Eventually, the specialists finally
agreed that the pain and numbness I was feeling in my back and lower body was
down to the implant.
“In October, they tried to remove as much
as they could but I’m convinced there’s still mesh inside me because of the
pain.
“Now I can’t stand for more than a couple
of minutes without falling on my face.
“My body feels as if it isn’t my own any
longer. I can’t control it. I don’t feel like a woman any more – I’m broken and
in constant pain.
“The doctors have told me all they can do
now is try to manage my pain, which means I’ve got to spend the rest of my life taking the most
powerful drugs my body can handle.
“I was about to start a new life and
become a hairdresser. Now I’ll be on disability benefits for the rest of my
life.”
The hardest thing for Leslie, of
Drumchapel, Glasgow, is how to tell her daughters Morgan, 10, and Elle, eight,
that she won’t ever be able to run with them in the park or take them out
shopping.
She said: “They’re really frightened
because they’ve seen me screaming in pain and trying to stand and falling over.
I can’t find the words to tell them I’ll never be the mummy I used to be.
“Last time I tried to stand and fell over,
the girls lay down beside me and stroked my hair and told me they had fallen
down too.
“It’s gut-churning to see them trying to
cope with what has happened.
“I can’t even dress myself. I rely on
them, my parents or my friends to help me get washed and dressed in the
mornings.
“I can’t do all the things I used to do
for my girls, take them to the park or just a trip to the shops. I feel like
someone has stolen my life and I’ve been left in this broken shell – and all
because I believed what the doctors told me.
“I feel very angry. There are so many
things I wasn’t told about this operation. I feel I have been betrayed and lied
to.
“I yearned to be a mum and have my own
family. Now my family are having to help me look after my girls. If it wasn’t
for them all and my best friend, I don’t know how I would get through each
day.”
Leslie never dreamed there were other
women suffering the same life-changing complications until she read the Sunday
Mail reports revealing the full extent of the mesh scandal.
She said: “When I read the paper, there
were tears running down my face. These stories could have been written about
me.
“The
helplessness, the despair, the feeling of hopelessness and the lies we’ve all
been told.
“Reading the Sunday Mail saved my life. I
was in such despair, I’d been planning to end it all.
“But reading about the others has given me
a new strength and resolve to get justice for what’s been done to us all.
“My friends and family have been able to
sympathise but nobody really knows how this feels until it happens to them.
“If
my story helps change anything and stops this happening to any other women, I
will feel vindicated.
“Experts
have known for years the damage these implants have been causing but they
couldn’t even be bothered filling out a few forms to warn others about what’s
been happening.
“Those
who keep silent and do nothing now shouldn’t be allowed to be doctors because
they know full well the harm this stuff is doing.
“It’s
down to politicians to stop other women’s lives being destroyed. I dare them to
look into my eyes and tell me this is all in my head.
“I
want them to imagine having their whole life ahead of them and it all being
taken away in an instant. Only then will they know how I really feel.
“Those
who sit on their hands and do nothing to protect us are not fit to be in public
office.
“They
have to get this stuff banned before even more women are butchered.”
Mum-of-three Karen Neil was about to kill
herself in despair after doctors told her she was imagining the horrific
complications
of her mesh op.
Only the fear that it would be her young
daughter who found her body stopped her.
She kept a diary of her day-to-day battle
with pain and the Sunday Mail initially told her story anonymously. Now she has
the courage to go public after realising she is not alone.
She said: “From the moment that mesh
implant was placed in my body two years ago, there was an immediate reaction
and I awoke screaming in pain.
“But specialists told me the pain was just in my head –
there was no way it was related to the mesh implant.
“They had me believing I was going crazy
when all along they knew mesh was to blame. When I read the Sunday Mail, I
couldn’t believe my eyes.
“I wasn’t alone after all but ours is the saddest sisterhood
in the world.
“Our lives and health have been broken but
together our determination to stop this happening to other women is keeping us
strong.”
Teaching assistant Linda McLaughlin, 57,
from Greenock, said: “I’ve had 10 operations to try to repair mesh damage and
I’m waiting to go into hospital again.
“I get angry when I think about the
legions of doctors who have seen for years the damage these mesh implants cause
but they’ve all kept their heads down and their mouths shut instead of speaking
out for their patients.
“Until
recently, only two doctors in Scotland had reported an adverse complication and
that is a shameful dereliction of duty.”
