Hawthorne, CAVenus Y's mother died as a result of complications from a hernia repair. The symptoms Venus' mother, Doris, suffered before she passed away are eerily similar to those suffered by other patients who have complained about problems with their Kugel Mesh Patch.
"My mother had been sick off and on," Venus says. "The problem was with her stomach, but the doctors never bothered to check the hernia repair she had. So, she was sick off and on and the doctors checked other things.
"They said she had gastric problems and then ruled that out. She'd go back to the doctor and they would say she had diverticulitis. She even had ultrasounds to make sure nothing else was wrong. I don't know why they couldn't tell that she was infected.
"When we found out what was wrong, it was already serious. It was a perforated intestine and from there she got sicker and sicker. It developed into fistula and after that, she went into septic shock. My mom passed after that, she was 71 years old.
"She had a lot of nausea, some dizziness and a fever. We thought it was the flu, at first. Sometimes, she couldn't eat. You know, my mother was a tough cookie, so she didn't complain a lot. We only knew she was sick when she didn't want to go anywhere. She was sick for a long time, but it became more prevalent over the last couple of years.
"Her problems were definitely caused by the mesh that was in her stomach. We are not positive what type of mesh was used but we know she had a hernia. She did not have these problems until after the hernia repair.
"The doctor said that my mom probably would have been worse had the mesh not fused itself to her navel. The mesh actually turned inside to her intestines and fused to her navel. Had that been open, feces would have been coming out sooner, but they didn't. By the time the doctors figured out what was wrong it was too late. They tried to repair the problem with another surgery and they removed all the mesh out of her stomach.
"I want people to know that they need to get their hernia repair checked. Make sure it's okay. This shouldn't happen to anyone else. You wonder why they didn't recall the patch sooner. I guess they don't care about people as much as they say. They aren't worried about getting sued, I guess."
Doris suffered almost every complication associated with the Kugel Mesh Patch, including severe abdominal pain and tenderness, a distended abdomen, fluid in her abdomen, intestinal perforation, internal and external fistulae, peritonitis and sepsis. Unfortunately, by the time doctors were able to diagnose her health problems, Doris was already too severely infected. If you have had a hernia repair surgery and suffer unexplained health problems, including those mentioned in this article, contact your doctor immediately to have your hernia repair checked.