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Anonymous submission of 25 June 2021

PE1865/J - Suspend all surgical mesh and fixation devices

I need to write to beg you to suspend ALL MESH. At 46 years of age I was maimed by a so called SAFE medical procedure called TVTO WHICH I NOW KNOW IS MESH. I specifically asked my surgeon if my "TAPE" was in fact mesh as I'd changed my mind after reading about mesh. My specialist told me it was Tape and NOT MESH  and nothing to do with bad press in Sunday mail campaign.  He also forgot to mention VAGINAL MESH OPERATIONS HAD BEEN SUSPENDED IN SCOTLAND 4 MONTHS PREVIOUSLY!!!.

How can this be informed consent?? Doctors telling government that patients are fully informed is a blatant LIE!! I woke from my op crying in pain and was assured it was just my epidural and would settle down. I was kept in overnight and I STILL COULDN'T WALK and was left in pain. I had to visit my GP for antibiotic after antibiotic for the first 6 months, the fevers, the pain, bed soaking in sweat yet no antibiotics would help. I now know this is foreign body response.  Why didn't surgeons warn my GP of signs to look for? Why didn't my surgeon listen at my appointment as I told him I had to crawl upstairs, walk with a painful limp, feel like I'm wearing a tampon dipped in acid, like my groins been booted by a horse, like I have a heavy fishing weight pulling down inside me. His excuse was this IS NORMAL and will settle down, sometimes up to a year later. So why no further yearly check-up? Why leave me in pain? Why are GPs not educated on the horrendous side effects and rejection. This stuff is POISON. 7 years later and I still cry with pain. Can't cough or sneeze without feeling like cheese-wire is slicing me so always grip my mesh area as I cough or sneeze.  Seatbelts are agony. I feel like I've permanently got a pocket mobile on vibration with nerve damage.  Pain from my buttocks down to my feet as I cry each night and can't sleep for pain. FOUR new auto immune diseases since mesh insertion,  I should never have been a candidate for mesh in first place as I already had Rheumatoid arthritis.  My immune system was in overdrive as soon as the mesh came in.

I'm absolutely TERRIFIED on who to trust for removal as I certainly have NO FAITH IN SCOTLANDS TOP MESH SPECIALISTS.  I feel that patients aren’t being treated with empathy to patients. It took 2 hrs of me what's causing my pain while the doctor drew silly diagrams wasting time. I constantly got told its IMPOSSIBLE FOR MESH TO FRAY, TWIST OR BREAK....Yet I've met dozens of ladies whose mesh did exactly that. I've met ladies who’ve been told ALL mesh has been removed yet a United States (US) surgeon has been able to remove a further 21cm. And you expect me to trust these doctors to remove my mesh? It's been likened to removing chewing gum from hair, except it’s not hair, ITS MY NERVES AND NERVE ENDINGS!! I finally asked at the end of my appointment "is there anything else there that could cause this pain?" The consultants reply was: "no, just the mesh". Why couldn't that have been said 2 hrs ago? They even blamed it on my Rheumatoid but my rheumatologist sent them an angry response as even he knows it’s the mesh.

I feel my submission is important because I'm EXPERIENCED,  I LIVE IT, ITS MY EXISTENCE.  This poison needs banned asap. There's enough research, enough data out there and you have it all at your finger tips. I would expect you've read the IMMDS review called FIRST DO NO HARM? The Scottish Government said they'd implement ALL 9 RECOMMENDATIONS.  THEY HAVE THE POWER TO DO THE RIGHT THING. PLEASE,  PLEASE LISTEN!! PLEASE!!

There's another petition, PE1517 by Elaine and Olive of Scottish mesh survivors "HEAR OUR VOICE". I feel the government have not followed through on recommendations suggested to them by various bodies involved in the mesh scandal. I believe this gives a platform for this new petition to see a mesh suspension and the government to meet all 9 recommendations.  I BEG you to research,  watch the evidence online from the first do no harm review. Please listen and do the right thing.