Mesh mum: ‘She loved to dance’
Surgical mesh injury claims double – but ACC continues to reject them. Cate Broughton reports.
A mother-of-two feels robbed of her health and happiness after a ‘‘simple’’ procedure to fix stress incontinence has left her with permanent pelvic and hip pain.
Alison Lee is one of a growing number of Kiwis who are suffering from severe complications associated with the use of surgical mesh to treat stress incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse and hernias.
‘‘I haven’t been able to work since. I have chronic pain and fatigue.
‘‘I’ve also got a hip injury and haven’t been able to walk properly since the surgery, yeah, I’m pretty much screwed,’’ said Lee.
The devices are part of a global medical scandal and last month became the subject of an Australian senate inquiry led by Kiwi Derryn Hinch.
Lee said she tried a year of physiotherapy before a surgeon recommended the procedure.
Immediately after the surgery to implant the mesh she felt terrible pain in her pelvic area which also radiated down her right leg and she could not empty her bladder properly.
A second surgery improved the bladder function but the pelvic and hip pain continued and a year later she underwent another more invasive surgery to remove the mesh.
Only two thirds could be removed with the remainder fused to her pubic bone.
She was then told nothing more could be done and her incontinence is worse. She wants to see the issue taken seriously and that victims are better supported.
‘‘We haven’t asked for this to happen to us, we’ve gone in trusting the surgeons and yet we’re having to pay for it in so many different ways.’’
ACC turned down Lee’s injuries.
ACC spokeswoman Stephanie Melville said payments for cover of an injury resulting from the first surgery were suspended when Lee’s consulting specialist advised it had been ‘‘resolved’’ after the chronic claims for second surgery.
Cover for urinary dysfunction, neuralgia, examination under anaesthesia and steroid injection, to treat hip pain, was declined because ‘‘they are non injury related conditions’’.
Lee’s husband Jeff Lee said the mesh surgery had destroyed their lives.
‘‘I can’t go out with my wife, she loves to dance, we can’t even dance, we can’t ride a bike together, we can’t go for a walk, we love to keep fit and active, we do family walks together - we can’t do that anymore.
‘‘We’re in the prime of and we’re just existing.’’
Auckland women Charlotte Korte and Carmel Berry have formed a support group for people with mesh complications.
According to ACC figures they have obtained, treatment injury claims have doubled in the past three years.
Between January 2014 and March 2017, ACC decided on 301 claims. This compared to 385 decided claims over an eight-year period from July 2005 to December 2013, an average of 46 per year.
ACC declined to release the number of mesh related claims that were under review but a spokeswoman said updated figures on all treatment injury claims would be released ‘‘shortly’’.
Last year the Health Select Committee decided not to conduct a national inquiry into the products but made recommendations to improve monitoring and education on ‘‘best practice’’ use.
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