Contraceptive implant blunder left me fearing I’d never have another baby
LOOKING down at her beautiful newborn baby, Charlene Clarke was overwhelmed with happiness – and relief.
It had taken ten years to have her son Prince, and there had been times when she thought she would never conceive again.
However, her fertility struggles were not down to nature – but a catastrophic blunder with a contraceptive implant that led to it getting lost in her arm.
The 31- year- old endured four unsuccessful operations and years of infertility caused by the incorrect insertion of the tiny device.
It was only in a fifth procedure that surgeons finally managed to remove it. She has been left with a scarred arm after her GP admitted it was incorrectly inserted, as well as years of pain and heartache.
Speaking for the first time about her ordeal, Mrs Clarke is still reeling from the experience.
She said: ‘I can’t believe how a supposedly safe contraceptive implant almost ruined my life. I will never have one again.’
The trainee social worker had the implant inserted in her left arm in June 2007, seven weeks after the birth of her first child, daughter Aneila with a former partner. But after several days of agonising pain, she knew something wasn’t right.
She said: ‘Although the doctor could feel the implant and tried to remove it, it wouldn’t budge and I was referred to hospital.’
After a consultant also failed to remove the implant, known as Implanon, she saw two more doctors and had ultrasound scans to try to locate it.
She recalls: ‘I was desperate for it to be removed. My life had become a round of endless painkillers and hospital appointments. I worried I’d never have another baby.’
In June 2008, a plastic surgeon tried to remove it while she was under a general anaesthetic.
She says: ‘ When I woke up I expected the nightmare would be over. I was devastated when a nurse said they couldn’t locate the implant.
‘ Surgeons hadn’t probed deeper because there was a risk that would damage a nerve and my arm would be paralysed.’
Worse still, she was told the implant, which is usually only recommended for three years at a time, was likely to prevent a pregnancy for eight to ten years.
When a further attempt under anaesthetic to remove it in January 2009 also failed, Mrs Clarke, from Leeds, sank into a deep depression. She said: ‘I didn’t want to go out. I grew more angry about the GP who’d inserted it. It felt wrong that through no fault of my own I was facing a possible lifetime of infertility.’
In September 2010, the GP who inserted the implant admitted liability and Mrs Clarke was awarded £30,000.
By now her relationship had broken down over the stress, and in November 2011 she met now-husband Erance, 31.
He persuaded her to go to a new GP, who referred her to a top plastic surgeon. In 2013, the implant was finally removed. ‘When I woke, Erance said “It’s gone” and I cried with relief.’
Sadly, Mrs Clarke then went on to endure two miscarriages. But 18 months after marrying in April 2015, the couple found they were expecting again.
‘When I saw our baby’s heartbeat on the scan I was absolutely overjoyed. I just never thought I’d be a mum again.’
Son Prince is now a year old, but to Mrs Clarke he will always be her ‘miracle’ baby.
‘This almost ruined my life’