WAITING IN HOPE AND MOUNTING ANGER
Three mesh-injured women reveal their ordeal and long fight for help and support
GILL WATT
The 52-year-old, from Pollok, Glasgow, was forced to quit her career as an interior designer after being disabled by mesh.
Her condition was so debilitating, she was forced to fund her own trip to the US in February to see Dionysios Veronikis, using settlement money received after a decadelong legal fight with a mesh manufacturer.
Now she faces a fight for reimbursement as the surgeon was forced to carry out at least £6,000 of further repairs blamed on botched partial mesh removal in Scotland.
Watt said: “Like hundreds of other women, I feel I’ve been utterly failed by Scottish surgeons who not only spent years denying mesh was injuring patients, but only removed tiny fragments, leaving us even more damaged than before.
“I’d been initially assured I’d undergone a full removal. Then I was told I’d been left with just tiny parts of mesh.
“Dr Veronikis removed a huge chunk of twisted mesh which was responsible for leaving me needing a wheelchair for years and having my bladder obstructed for 18 months, causing horrific internal damage.
“When Dr Veronikis operated on me, he not only discovered giant cell reaction to foreign material which I’m now terrified could lead to cancer, he found extensive internal damage he believes had been caused by the botched partial removal.
“Dr Veronikis had to carry out around £6,000 of further intricate surgery over and above the actual basic mesh removal because of the mess I’d been left in.
“My legal settlement for being left disabled for life in no way even begins to cover the loss of earnings of pain I’ve suffered.
“Why should I lose a further £6,000 because of the ridiculous restrictions on the reimbursement scheme, which only cover mesh removal.
“It should cover any repair needed. But the rules insist we return to Scotland, undergo a further major operation and anaesthetic, and let the surgeons who caused all our problems operate on us again, which is never going to happen.”