Abdominal Mesh Surgery Destroys Life, say patients in the U.S. and Scotland

Lancaster, SCRuth underwent three abdominal mesh surgeries in the last few years, all of them unsuccessful. She now lives with an ugly scar and constant pain. She replaced her addiction to prescription painkillers with Suboxone (prevents painful addiction withdrawal) and trips to the emergency room with visits to the addiction center. 

Steve (not his real name) was implanted with Ethicon surgical mesh and like Ruth, he had additional surgeries, including revision surgery, which proved fruitless. Both patients woke from their surgeries with a drainage device. Ruth says she had a JP drainage device attached for more than a month with each surgery.

“After each surgery I was provided with countless pain medication prescriptions,” says Ruth. “I finally realized my dependency on pain medication too late: I became addicted, and have attended two detox programs, outpatient programs and given Suboxone, all because of this defective mesh.”

Steve wound up with an infection and finally had most of the mesh removed. Some minute pieces of mesh were impossible to remove.  “I can feel it when I press on my abdomen and this microscopic mesh has now attached to my bowel,” says Steve. “My prognosis is grim – I might lose my bowel and I’m only 47 years old.”

Across the pond, a Scottish woman the same age as Steve told the Sunday Post that a hernia mesh implant destroyed her life, ended her career and she can no longer do everyday things she used to do with her kids. Getting nowhere with the health system, Laura researched polypropylene (most abdominal mesh, such as Ethicon phsyiomesh, is made of polypropylene, which has also been used in transvaginal mesh).

Laura told the Post that she was “shocked to discover medical implants like mesh are not even required to undergo as stringent testing as many of the materials used on building sites…When I discovered it was made of the same plastic polypropylene..that caused injuries to hundreds of thousands of women [with transvaginal mesh] it became clear why I was suffering the same kind of complications and pain.”

Laura says she has developed an auto-immune-type illnesses, just like many transvaginal mesh women, but she has needs to see a specialist and there’s a long waiting list due to Covid.

Ruth, Steve and Laura, along with thousands and thousands of hernia mesh victims, have all filed surgical mesh lawsuits. Laura’s hernia mesh lawsuit goes further: she is demanding the Scottish Government suspend hernia mesh use. According to the newspaper, the Scottish Mesh Survivors’ “Hear Our Voice campaign” ended transvaginal mesh implants in Scotland and influenced action in other countries. They were up against mesh surgeons, many of whom received grants from medical manufacturers, and of course medical device makers, such as Johnson and Johnson.

In Scotland alone, 10,000 hernia mesh surgeries are performed each year, with 30 percent suffering complications. Hernia mesh lawyers say new litigation in the U.S. paves the way for actions in the U.K.

On its website, however, Johnson and Johnson says Ethicon has been “pioneering advances in hernia surgery to help restore patients back to their prehernia life… Our innovative value-led solutions are meant to provide strong and safe hernia repair and are designed for good long-term patient outcomes.”

Ethicon has manipulated COVID-19 to its advantage by saying “We are in this together” and “humbled to support  your efforts to keep healthcare running during times of unprecedented disruption,” but the company is also supporting their lawyers in court.

Reuters on May 11, 2021 reported that a Florida woman’s pelvic mesh lawsuit against Ethicon is “moving forward”. The lawsuit claims that Ethicon sold defective materials such as polypropylene, that are biologically incompatible with the human body.