‘Mesh harm is happening nationwide and must stop’

Warning: Contains graphic content

Women living on morphine and becoming suicidal from “razor blade” pain are among 30 complaints Sally Walker has collected as part of a fight against surgical mesh harm.

Of those complaints, 20 have been lodged with New Zealand’s government-funded healthcare watchdog the Health and Disability Commission, and the remaining 10 were expected to be sent to the agency within the next six weeks.

Walker, 73, told her story to the Herald in June, describing her insides being so badly damaged by the medical device that her bladder had to be removed and her vagina sewn closed.

Her trauma caused national outrage, with hundreds of people commenting on social media in disgust at how she had been treated and dozens more women contacting the Herald with their stories of being harmed by mesh.

Now, the former Karitane nurse is helping other women who say they too have been left crippled by mesh implanted into their body, allegedly without their informed consent.

“These women need someone to advocate for them so they don’t continue to get fobbed off, I am helping them feel heard,” Walker said.

She said women had contacted her from across the country including Northland, Rotorua, Auckland, Nelson,

Greymouth, Taranaki, Dunedin, Hastings, Whanganui, Te Awamutu and Hokitika.

“This shows the scale of the problem, it’s not just one surgeon or one hospital. Mesh harm is happening all over the country and it needs to stop,” Walker said.

These women had been operated on between 2009 and as recent as last year, she said.

Walker said the common themes in the complaints were women not being believed, being made to feel like their illness was “in their head” and often they hadn’t given informed consent.

“They are not being listened to about pain, how they are feeling, they are just given medication to the extent of morphine and tramadol and taking it all together in one day.”

Of the 30 women, 23 had got their mesh removed and seven were waiting for removal surgery — but most were left with life-long trauma.

She said some women have been driven close to suicide, some couldn’t enjoy family time and the fear of wetting themselves was constant.

“Some have five pairs of the same clothes so that if they do have an accident they can go and change and no one will notice.

“They were between the age of 35 years old and in their early 70s.”

On Wednesday, the Herald told another story of a 35-year-old mum who said she was harmed by surgical mesh in July last year — three years after the Government ordered hospitals to take action to protect women from harm caused by mesh, which is used to treat birth injuries.

Health and Disability Commissioner Morag Mcdowell said she wanted to acknowledge Walker’s advocacy for people harmed by surgical mesh, and thank her for her support of people submitting complaints.

“To those who have submitted a complaint, I can assure them that their concerns will be carefully considered and treated seriously.”

The commissioner said she remained concerned about inconsistency in informed consent and regulatory issues including credentialling and training of surgeons.

Former Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson, now a professor of health law and policy at the University of Auckland, said in June he was aware there remained “concerns” of women still being harmed by gynaecological surgeons who were not properly trained to select appropriate patients and implant mesh without causing harm.

In Her Head is a Herald campaign for

better women's health services. Reporter Emma Russell investigates what's wrong with our current system

and talks to wa¯ hine who have been made to feel their serious illness is a figment of their imagination or “just

part of being a woman”.