Ethicon Media Monitoring 1/17/2018

Client Attorney Privileged/Attorney Work Product/At Request of Counsel

Online Sources

1. Hernia patients speak of 'constant pain' due to controversial mesh procedures

   Jan 17, 2018 | Sky News

   By Charlotte Lomas-Farley
   
   
   One woman says her life has been turned upside down and she wasn't offered any alternative treatment.
2. Mesh op campaigner in Spalding on Saturday to help those in living hell

   Jan 17, 2018 | Spalding Today

   People living in pain after controversial mesh implants went wrong can find help at a public meeting in Spalding on Saturday.

Client Attorney Privileged/Attorney Work Product/At Request of Counsel

Online Sources

1. Hernia patients speak of 'constant pain' due to controversial mesh procedures

   Jan 17, 2018 | Sky News

   By Charlotte Lomas-Farley

   Patients who have had mesh inserted to repair hernias have told Sky News they are in constant pain and barely able to walk.
   

   One woman says her life has been turned upside down and she wasn't offered any alternative treatment.
   
   One in 10 people will develop a hernia, which occurs when an organ or fatty tissue bulges through a gap where muscle has weakened.

   Around 80,000 hernia operations take place every year and the recommended treatment is to use a piece of mesh to hold the tissue back in place.
   
   The mesh is the same product used in the controversial vaginal meshimplants which has been found to erode, stiffen and cut through organs.

   Unlike vaginal mesh surgery, however, Sky News has learnt there are no guidelines from the UK health watchdog NICE on the use of mesh for treating hernias.

   Jennifer Coles had an operation to treat her inguinal hernia in February last year.

   Before the operation she was an active 33-year-old, working in London and taking part in frequent adventure sports and holidays. She says the mesh brought her life to a halt.

   :: Journalist Kath Sansom was 'wreck' after vaginal mesh implant

   "It's changed everything for me. I woke up from my operation and it felt like someone was stabbing me in the stomach. I expected some pain but it felt really odd," she said.

   "The pain would ramp up during the day to the point where it kind of felt like I had some barbed wire pressing in and when I took a step it was almost as if I could catch this piece of glass right down in my groin".
   
   Jennifer is now living with her parents and decided to have her mesh removed, a high risk operation as the mesh device embeds itself into surrounding tissue and is designed to be permanent.
   
   "Many of the doctors I saw didn't recognise my symptoms or advised me to manage my pain with medication.

   "I want my life back. I am essentially confined to home. I could barely walk and when I did I was hunched over. The operation to remove the mesh was traumatic and very risky as the hernia is close to major arteries."
   
   But Jennifer was in capable hands. The surgeon who performed the removal operation is a man used to treating patients in war and disaster zones. British consultant David Nott is revered for his emergency work, most recently spending time in Syria. It took him an hour to remove the 13cm mesh from Jennifer's abdomen.
   
   "After having it removed on one side I am already in less pain and can walk better," Jennifer said.
   
   "I just wish I had been offered alternatives to mesh. I would give anything to have a day at work, to be able to see my friends and go to parties like I used to."

   Consultant Nicholas Markham from the Royal College of Surgeons said: "It is regretful that a small yet significant amount of patients are suffering pain.

   "But overall the success rate of mesh for hernia repair is excellent.

   "Mesh has been used for more than 30 years and is a lot easier and quicker than alternative surgery and patients recover quicker."

   Canadian surgeon, Vladimir Iakolev, has specialised in mesh for five years and has advised UK politicians on its safety.

   He believes the problem lies in the lack of long term research.

   He said: "I'm overwhelmed by the volume and scale of complications I see. When I examined the first specimen, I put the slide in the microscope and saw nerves growing in between mesh fibres. It was the first slide and we could see this and since then it's been like a snowball".
   
   "Unfortunately at this point we don't know the exact number of complications because the studies that are available now are of low quality. The data isn't sensitive enough. There's a problem - if the case isn't flagged as positive for complications automatically it's assigned to the group where there is no complications so we are getting these falsely negative cases."
   
   Hernias are more common in men, who are often less willing to discuss their health.

   Damian Murtagh had a hernia mesh repair four years ago and says he now lives in constant pain. He's tried to encourage men to talk about the issue more by setting up an online support group in his home country of Northern Ireland.
   
   He said: "Within my own town, where I go to work, I have met men who have no problem discussing their problems, where the pain is and how it affects them but keep not wanting to talk to a doctor. What's the point when they don't tell you the truth and all they want to do is give you painkillers."

   https://news.sky.com/story/hernia-patients-speak-of-constant-pain-due-to-controversial-mesh-procedures-11210701
   

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2. Mesh op campaigner in Spalding on Saturday to help those in living hell

   Jan 17, 2018 | Spalding Today

   People living in pain after controversial mesh implants went wrong can find help at a public meeting in Spalding on Saturday.

   Punchbowl publicans Pete and Steph Williams are hosting a Sling the Mesh campaign group meeting just four days before Steph has an exploratory ‘op’ as a first step to reversing mesh surgery that left her in agony.

   Group founder Kath Sansom says: “The meeting gives women a perfect chance to meet others going through the same thing. Hopefully we can all offer advice, support and a shoulder to lean on.”

   She describes mesh operations as a “quick fix” for vaginal prolapse (where the uterus falls out of place) and incontinence, and points out vaginal prolapse mesh was effectively banned at the end of last year.

   A survey of 570 group members revealed alarming findings, including seven out of ten women losing their sex lives, one in seven losing their marriage or partner, more than a quarter developing the auto immune condition fibromyalgia and many developing a resistance to antibiotics.

   Kath said: “We have women in the group who are suicidal, who don’t want to carry on because the pain is so intense. Yet previously they ked healthy lives.

   “Surgeon societies know there are big problems as 18 specialist mesh centres have been set up across England. Also conferences are being held on how to deal with mesh litigation.

   “Surgeons only monitor women for around three months after an operation so have no idea of the scale of suffering as some problems take months or years to cut in.

   “There is little reliable audit to back up claims it is a long term solution because there is no national register like there is for hip implants.”

   Saturday’s meeting starts at noon in the New Road pub and comes ten days before a parliamentary think tank meets on the issue.

   The Spalding meeting is open to anyone who has had mesh surgery – whether or not they are feeling any ill effects – and anyone who is contemplating having the procedure.

   https://www.spaldingtoday.co.uk/news/mesh-op-campaigner-in-spalding-on-saturday-to-help-those-in-living-hell-1-8333211
   

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