MUM ON HER CONTRACEPTION IMPLANT HELL AS
Essure device
Sandra Twigg was lef t in constant pain after being fitted with a Bayer-made Essure birth control device in an NHS hospital.
She also suffered a dangerous allergic reaction – despite her fears being dismissed by a doctor who claimed eating a bar of chocolate posed a bigger risk.
Sandra has become the seventh Scottish woman to join a group multi-million-pound legal action against makers Bayer.
She may also sue Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS, who fitted the implant in the city’s Stobhill hospital in August 2014.
Mum- of- three Sandra, of Barmulloch, Glasgow, said: “It was pitched on the basis that I didn’t need an operation or an anaesthetic, so there was less risk.
“They said I could get it done at lunchtime then go back to work.
“I was told it was the way forward, it was more convenient for women, less traumatic and less recovery period.
“For a mum with three kids, it sounded ideal.
“I told the hospital that I had an allergy to nickel and the doctor told me there was more nickel in a bar of chocolate.
“I was told it would cause no issue and I should not take an allergic reaction. They could not have been more wrong.”
Sandra decided to have the procedure after giving birth to her daughter in January 2014.
When she first complained to doctors, it was suggested that the pain may be psychological.
Sandra, who also has two sons, 15 and 13, has now asked personal injury specialists Thompsons to represent her.
We told last week how the law firm were planning to sue Bayer at Edinburgh’s Court of Session on behalf of six women.
Sandra, a charity helpline worker, added: “My mum had been diagnosed with cancerer at the same t ime and it was suggested that the pain was due to stress, which was quite upsetting.
“I felt I was being told I wass over-reacting.
“I think the hospitalal were trying to keep a lid on it because it wasas a pilot project.
” It all sounded idealeal at first.
“I didn’t want anotherther operation as I had threehree Caesarian sections.
“They said they were operating a pilot projectroject and it would be overver in seven minutes. It wouldould be uncomfortable but not painful.”
Despite being told the insertion would not hurt, Sandra said the pain was the worst she’d ever endured.
She added: “I’d taken the whole We Wetold told of the implant legal action day off workw despite being toldto it would only ttake a few minuteminutes. “ThThere were seven people in the room a l l traintraining on the devicdevice. “A nurse said, ‘ IItt won’t be paipainful , just uncuncomfortable. “I’ve never endendured pain like that in my life. “It was horrific. It felt as though I’dbI’dbeen stabbed.tbbd IIhhaddtto be helped off the seat and I couldn’t walk upright into the waiting room. “I also couldn’t get into the car unaided. “There was no anaesthetic, just
two co-codamol, which were no use at all.”
Women who have contacted Thompsons in the last few months claim they have been blighted by c on s t a nt pa i n , bl o a t i n g , bleeding and infections.
They have also reported mental health problems including depression and mood swings.
The implant has made sex either painful or impossible.
In other cases, the device has become dislodged and punctured the bladder and the bowel causing additional pain.
Sandra added: “I took really strong painkillers and lay all day and couldn’t move. I went back to work the next day and still couldn’t walk properly.
“It took a week for it to calm down. The whole time, the pain in the right side of my womb and leg was constant. The first time I had a period after that was horrific.
“I was having to take powerful painkillers to work and deal with my kids. I had sick days when I couldn’t go to work because of the pain.”
About 2000 women in Scotland are thought to have been f itted with Essure in the last few years, though no official figures are available.
Bayer withdrew the device in Britain last September.
Sandra added: “A couple of months after the procedure, I developed welts on my leg and my thigh.
“It was as if someone had burned me with an iron. My feet and arms had swollen up and I had to go to casualty.
“The doctor had never heard of Essure and told me that I had to go back to my gynaecologist as he thought it was an allergic reaction.”
In December 2014, Sandra decided