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Women from across the UK who have suffered serious life changing pelvic floor injuries and long term chronic pain as a result of what is called a minor procedure to treat problems often caused by childbirth, are lobbying Parliament on July 18.

They are calling for an urgent suspension of mesh implants, as is in place in Scotland. A photo call will take place outside Portcullis House at 1pm. Addressing the meeting will be Owen Smith MP, shadow Northern Ireland secretary. Joining him is retired leading Obstetrician and Gynaecologist John Osborne, who predicted a disaster with meshes well over a decade ago, England’s top mesh removal surgeon Miss Sohier Elneil and Sling the Mesh campaigner Kath Sansom, whose support group has over 2,200 members. All MPs and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt have been invited. More than 100,000 mesh tape implant surgeries have been carried out in the UK in the last decade.

Speaking ahead of the meeting Owen Smith MP for Pontypridd said: “I am deeply concerned that so many women have experienced profound, life changing complications after mesh surgery. Women who have undergone the surgery invariably say they were advised that this was a simple operation, with little accompanying risk. But for too many, mesh implants have been the cause of chronic and debilitating pain. This issue must be more widely known and discussed.

"We need answers about the proportion of women adversely affected by vaginal mesh and the safety of the products concerned. I believe there is a strong case for suspending the use of this mesh, to treat stress incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse until those answers have been provided.'
London surgeon Suzi Elneil, who has women travelling from Australia, China, the Middle East, North Africa as well as from all over the UK and Ireland to get their mesh removed, said when she saw the procedure for the first time: "There is no doubt that we felt as if one was watching a car crash in slow motion taking place in the pelvis.

"It was blind in nature, and involved inserting a piece of polypropylene or plastic using sharp large needles into a rather complex anatomical space.
"We suspected there would be many complications in the future,” she said.
Retired surgeon John Osborne said he predicted the mesh disaster, having seen problems of a trial sling, made of gauze, written about in 1968.
"At the time, it was hailed a big success," he said. "But in reality, in clinic, we only saw the long-term suffering."

When the TVT mesh slings, still used today, were launched around 1996, he said: "It rang alarm bells." He went back to his research. "The TVT is a different technique but the principles are the same. I was anxious about history repeating itself. When I bought copies of these records to meetings in the 90’s and 2000’s, the reply from the TVT enthusiasts was that the mesh was different and we need not worry about long term complications."

Kath Sansom, founded the Sling the Mesh campaign after suffering debilitating pain following the TVT procedure which she had inserted and removed on the NHS. Kath has worked tirelessly for the past two years to bring awareness of the dangers of mesh implants and provide women with information about alternative methods to treat stress incontinence and prolapse.

Kath said: "I now have more than 2,200 members of Sling The Mesh. All of us who are suffering were told it was a simple 20 minute fix. What none of us were told were the devastating complications. There are women who now struggle to walk, are in constant pain, suffer infections, loss of sex life or worse mesh shrinking and cutting into bladders, bowels or slicing through vaginal walls.

"When it goes wrong it is catastrophic and even if women have the mesh removed, it is such major surgery, that the women never go back to what they once were. The mesh fixes problems of incontinence or prolapse but in its path can leave a trail of disaster that is much bigger.”
Sling The Mesh has launched a group action with London firm Wedlake and Bell with QC Elizabeth Ann Gumbel. Women concerned about their symptoms can get support and advice from the patient group Facebook page ‘Sling the Mesh’ or on Twitter @meshcampaign or https://slingthemesh.wordpress.com.

Two surgeons voice their fears over controversial mesh implants:
Miss Suzy Elneil and John Osborne will both be at the Parliamentary lobby

A surgeon has told how she thinks women's mesh implant operations are like watching a car crash in slow motion in the pelvis while another has told how he predicted the disaster having seen problems from a similar operation in the 1970s - but when he tried to warn the medical community nobody listened.
Miss Suzy Elneil, of UCLH, said that when she watched the first mesh sling tape operation in 1997 she worried that surgeons were putting a piece of plastic into a delicate area, performed "blindly."
She said: "When I saw my first mesh sling operation in 1997, I was a junior doctor at Addenbrooke’s Hospital working with my mentor John Williamson. We were invited to see this new continence procedure at a nearby hospital.

"Both of us were unsure about the procedure as it worried us that it was blind in nature, and it involved inserting a piece of polypropylene or plastic using sharp large needles into a rather complex anatomical space.
"It felt like the nature of the woman’s tissue, the nature of the mesh, the anatomical complexity and the blind approach were not issues meant to be considered.

"We were fearful as we suspected there would be many complications in the future. There is no doubt that we felt as if one was watching a car crash in slow motion taking place in the pelvis. Having removed multiple meshes used for both prolapse and incontinence, it feels that that fear was realised.”
Surgeon John Osborne said he predicted the mesh disaster based on problems of a trial sling, made of gauze, written about in 1968, that led to women asking for removal.

Retired Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, Mr Osborne, who qualified in 1966, said:
?In 1974, I was a research registrar working with world-renowned urologist, Richard Turner-Warwick, at the Middlesex Hospital. We were carrying out work on the investigation of bladder function and incontinence.
"Both Richard and his urological colleagues were seeing patients who had undergone ‘gauze mesh’ surgery for incontinence. The product used for this sling procedure was Ethicon’s ‘mersilene gauze’. This mesh had been inserted according to the principles described by Professor Chassar- Moir in an article in 1968.

"At the time, it was hailed a big success and it was often quoted that women afterwards were able to play badminton and bowls without worrying. But in reality, in clinic, we only saw the long-term suffering.
"As a consequence, many women came to seek help to have the ‘gauze mesh’ removed. This was extremely difficult surgery. Unsurprisingly, many women continued to suffer long term problems.

"In the 1990?s when the TVT was launched, it rang alarm bells and I went back to my research of past publications, as I realised I had seen this before. The TVT is a different technique but the principles are the same. I was anxious about history repeating itself".

"There is a tendency now to look back at records that are accessible only on websites, but not to search the records from the distant past, yet there is a wealth of information in those. When I bought copies of these records to meetings in the 1990?s and 2000?s, the reply from the TVT enthusiasts was that the mesh was different and we need not worry about long term complications."

Sadly, John Osborne’s fears have been realised. He said there are significant problems which include:

*Mesh embedding into tissues and thus becoming more difficult to remove.
*Mesh creating a hard surface, and with the pressure of a full bladder, for example, can lead to erosion.
*Mesh not being pliable or natural so can lead to problems with sexual intercourse.
*Inserting the mesh is a blind procedure, and John Osborne said “there are always dangers with blind procedures, as there's a woman's anatomy can vary and unexpected situations can arise, such as scar tissue that may be in place after childbirth. This can create problems.”

Mr Osborne, chairman of the EGA Hospital charity, said: “The mesh operations are many and often quick to perform, and those who aren't trained in complex surgery can do it.
"However, there are potential complications that must be taken into consideration and explained to the patient. A value judgement needs to be made as to whether the severity of condition balanced against the possible complications warrants the surgical intervention.

"This decision must be made together with the patient. In essence there is an art to this, in my opinion, and forms part of the art of medicine. This is best done by apprenticeship training, and not by tick box modular teaching. When the art of medicine goes out the window and leaves the science behind, it leads to unhappy patients and increases the possibility of litigation. We are not dealing with machines but people, and they deserve to be treated appropriately.”

"Apprentices can learn so much more from experienced older surgeons and it is a great shame that this is no longer possible with the lack of continuity in the present training programme, which is set up to take into account the current rota system.
Mr Osborne was the RCOG Training Programme Director for Urogynaecology at UCLH, 15 years ago, and his first trainee was leading UK mesh removal surgeon Dr Suzy Elneil.

Mr Osborne said: “I was so impressed with Suzy's work and felt she was the only person I wanted to take over my Consultant sessions, when I left the NHS to pursue other projects. She is a superb surgeon. In 2003, I said to her that many people would be putting mesh in and that you will be spending most of the rest of your career taking them out, because you have the skills to do so. I had no idea how big the problems were going to be with mesh or indeed how much worse it would get.”

Nor could he have predicted that Ms Elneil would have women traveling from as far as Australia, China, the Middle East or North Africa to get their mesh removed as nobody could do it in their own countries.
John Osborne went on further to say: “I'm pleased it is finally being brought to light. However, I don't want to say one should never perform a TVT but it is imperative that it is only done after careful consideration in the right women.”

"I do understand that some people want a quick fix, but if it they are not properly selected and counselled, you often you pay a penalty as we are seeing with the mesh implants."
"Surgeons need to give sensible easy to understand advice with consultations that fully and properly explain all of the complications that can and do happen. There still is a place for mesh under some circumstances when there's no real alternative but only after careful consideration of possible consequences."
Ms Elneil said she is keen that young surgeons never lose the traditional skills of time honoured fixes for prolapse or incontinence and said it had already been lost in some arenas.

"When I trained those traditional skills were routine, but now they are not. Most people want to do this new quick and easy fix, yet when that phases out then what? We need to bring back those traditional skills."