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LAWSUITS NEWS & LEGAL INFORMATION

Real Life Transvaginal Mesh Horror Stories

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Toronto, ONWith lawsuits over transvaginal mesh ricocheting across both the US and Canada, a noted health writer for a major Canadian newspaper says it's time to bring transvaginal mesh complication out of the shadows and into the spotlight.

Andre Picard, writing in The Globe and Mail (5/8/12), notes there about 25,000 surgical procedures each year for stress-urinary incontinence (SUI), and another 5,000 for pelvic-organ prolapse (POP) in Canada. To that end, Picard reports, more than 30 percent of POP procedures and a full 90 percent of SUI surgeries involve the insertion of vaginal mesh, also known as transvaginal tape sling (TVT sling) to hold everything in place after things like ligaments, muscles and even skin fail over time and are no longer capable of doing the job of holding wayward organs in place.

While transvaginal mesh remains effective for the majority of patients for whom it is used, the emergence of serious TVT side effects in many patients has prompted both Health Canada and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take a cautionary stance against the product.

Some of the real-life transvaginal mesh complications encountered by women are heartbreaking, according to Picard, who tracked the stories of two plaintiffs involved in a class-action transvaginal mesh lawsuit in Canada. Both women had been suffering from incontinence issues, and were assigned TVT mesh to hopefully fix the problem.

It didn't work for one, and fostered debilitating pain for both, Picard reports. One plaintiff developed chronic leg pain allegedly from the mesh and had to give up her job in the nursing profession due to her newfound inability to stand for long periods. Another plaintiff found the mesh resolved her bladder problem, but left her with serious leg pain.

There are other women with equally compelling transvaginal sling stories. One patient reports constant burning pain from her knees to her navel. Another is now on long-term disability due to the pain allegedly caused by the vaginal sling she received in 2010.

Some women, according to Picard, report suicidal thoughts as a means to escape the pain.

Picard notes that such a compelling problem has largely gone unrecognized due to a largely silent media reluctant to address issues involving the nether regions. When the CTV News Network recently did a story on transvaginal mesh, the floodgates opened.

One patient complained that her vaginal sling had loosened and pierced her vaginal wall. Another reported bits of purple mesh fiber expelled in her urine. Picard notes that the particular mesh used in a TVT sling procedure is designed to latch to the body, so removal after the fact due to complication is nearly impossible.

July will be the first anniversary of the FDA's most recent warning letter to physicians, in which the federal regulator cautioned "serious complications associated with surgical mesh for transvaginal repair of POP are not rare." In language that Picard notes is rather damning towards transvaginal mesh, the FDA went on to say that "it is not clear that transvaginal POP repair with mesh is more effective than traditional non-mesh repair in all patients with POP and it may expose patients to greater risk."

The manufacturers of TVT mesh—the defendants in many a transvaginal mesh lawsuit—refer back to the skill of the surgeon as a factor, together with the fact mesh remains effective for the majority of patients regardless of the FDA's position that a transvaginal tape sling may no longer be the best treatment option. The manufacturers also point to the FDA's own approvals protocol, which excuses manufacturers from the need for substantive testing if a product is similar to one already on the market and used successfully.

To that point, mesh has been used for decades to repair abdominal hernias. However, mesh utilized for a vaginal sling has been seen as increasingly problematic.

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READER COMMENTS

Posted by

on
I just returned from Orlando where the most wonderful and experienced doctor took my mesh out. I too had it put in in 2010. It was a 3 1/2 hour surgery. I had it Oct 21, 2013.

I had to retire from my job ......believe me, I know about the pain and pain meds.

There are only a handful of doctors out there who know what they are doing. Thank God I found Dr Christopher Walker in Orlando, FL.

If you live anywhere near Florida I would go see him. He operates out of Florida Hospital.

There is a Comfort Inn across the street that gives you a hospital discount.

I am so happy mine is out I may go on a mission helping women, like myself that didn't know the right doctor.

There is another doctor in California name Dr Raz. I have heard all good things about him and there is one in Atlanta. Email me anytime if you like....beckysbmwz3@aol.com

Good luck and tell your wife to get rid of ALL the mesh.

Posted by

on
You don't here to much from the husbands who live with this problem witch there wives who have had the TVTO implant. I am one of these husbands all I can tell you is that since my wife had this surgery done in 2010 our lives have changed for the worse. It is very hard to except that you cant help your wife when you are suppose to protect them from harm and this harm has been done through a so called safe surgery having this mesh put into you. My wife has been through hell and she still is going through hell she had surgery to take the mesh out in 2012 she had to beg the surgeon to do this and he finally agreed all this did was release some of the pressure she still gets pain in her groin lower back pain down her legs and she has bowl problems which she never had before and of coarse the intimate problems and depression at times. It hasn't been easy over the last few years and by the looks of things it wont be any easier for things to come she still has a far amount of mesh left inside of her. The Dr she is seeing at the moment really made me upset as my wife needs some sort of medication to relieve her pain and when she went to see him to ask for something stronger she said I don't mean to complain he said well you are one other Dr said when she asked why is this happening to me he replied its like a car accident things happen holly crap really. Am I mad over what has happened to my wife of coarse its putting my wife through hell and she is trying to be a trooper and she is still going to work as she cant get disability as she can still walk one thing I don't understand is why does it have to take so long for some people to get justice and others have already got justice isn't this TVTO mesh the same every where and all women who is suffering should get the same treatment in the courts no matter where you live.

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