Surgeon accuses officials over trip
– Mesh victim Claire Daisley
A world-leading mesh removal specialist yesterday blamed Scots officials after discussions to bring him to Scotland ground to a halt. Health Secretary Jeane Freeman promised to bring Dr Dionysios Veronikis to Scotland three months ago to train surgeons in his techniques and to treat mesh victims. However, he says no progress has been made in arranging the trip, adding: “I am a surgeon, not a politician. If they do not want me to come, they should just say so.”
Politicians last night demanded Ms Freeman intervenes personally.
Our story on the Sunday before Claire was due to lose bladder in July and, right, she is forced to climbs 47 steps to her flat
I can look forward to the future with hope for the first time in nine years
Claire Daisley could suffer no longer.
Repeatedly told by doctors that everything that could be done to ease her crippling agony had been done, she was resigned to an awful operation that would change her life forever.
Her mesh implant, that had inflicted such pain, had been completely removed, they said, but still her anguish continued, the terrible agony forcing her to use crutches and wheelchairs.
The only option left, they said, was to remove organs, her bladder, definitely, her bowel, almost certainly.
Fearful, Claire was due to have her bowel removed at the end of July, but a dramatic last-minute intervention meant the operation was cancelled and, she hopes, will now never be needed.
Supporters who had read her story in The Sunday Post had come forward and donated the thousands of pounds needed to send her to America, to be operated on by the world’s leading mesh removal expert.
Back in Scotland after a month recuperating in Missouri, Claire, 49, struggles for the words to thank her benefactors and surgeon Dionysios Veronikis.
“They have not just changed my life, they have saved my life, and I cannot thank them enough,” she said. It is hard to believe that only a few months ago, I was in agony and utter despair. I am transformed. “The mesh has been removed and I can look forward with hope for the first time in nine years.”
Claire flew to the US despite the Scottish Government’s most senior medical officers attempting to discourage her, personally calling to say she was unfit to travel and should have her bladder removed on the NHS as planned.
In calls to her home, Scotland’s deputy chief medical officer, Terry O’kelly, advised Claire she wouldn’t be fit enough to face the long, painful, journey to America.
But thanks to her benefactors and The Sunday Post who together raised almost £20,000 to fund the journey and hospital stay, Dr Veronikis, who worked free of charge, was able to save both Claire’s bladder and her bowel.
During a gruelling four- hour operation at Mercy Hospital in St Louis last month, Dr Veronikis carried out extensive repairs to Claire’s pelvic floor area, and removed the remaining two-thirds of the mesh implant left in her body by Scottish surgeons.
Claire said: “In a telephone conversation, Mr O’kelly told me I was not fit to travel to the US for surgery, despite the fact surgeons here thought I was fit enough to undergo surgery to remove my bladder and were hours from admitting me to hospital.
“They had been making plans to remove my bowel too, but I was reluctant to have such radical, irreversible surgery when there was a world-class surgeon who believed he could help me.
“The thought of ending up with stoma bags to empty my bowel and bladder, and the strong suspicion that I still had mesh inside me and nobody here was able to remove it was the deciding factor.
“I saw what Dr Veronikis has done for other women, so I chose to put my trust in him.
“I’m overjoyed that I did, and thanks to his skills and the incredible kindness of the people who donated money to make it possible for me to go to the US, I feel like a new woman.
“At long last I am completely mesh-free and can now look forward to a future instead of a life of crippling pain, and it was Dr Veronikis’s skill and expertise that made it possible.”
Claire said just waking up after her operation to discover 12.5 centimetres of mesh had been removed was enough.
To learn Dr Veronikis had also managed to restore 80% of her bowel function and was confident that he would not require her bladder to be removed, was “a miracle”.
She said: “I had been left in such despair. I was so ground down I began to believe the only way out of this mesh nightmare was to take my own life.
“I’m so glad I managed to fight on and I’m humbled people were so determined to helpme, they donated the money to make it possible for my life to be changed.
“But it saddens me that the opportunity I have had is being denied to all the other mesh-injured women in Scotland who all deserve to have this same chance.”