Suffering in Silence: Thousands of Canadian Women and Cherie Storozinski

Patient Profiles

Suffering in Silence: Thousands of Canadian Women and Cherie Storozinski

May 3, 2013~  “My name is Cherie Storozinski. I am 50 years old and live in Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada. I am a victim of transvagnial mesh.” That’s how Cherie started her email to MDND. Cherie, 50, had a wonderful life in rural Manitoba, Canada. She and her husband, Curt, live on 20 acres and run
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Patient Profiles

Hope Pagano: Hope for the New Year Despite Lupus Following Transvaginal Mesh Hope Pagano: Hope for the New Year Despite Lupus Following Transvaginal Mesh

 December 31, 2012 ~ “I had originally had my surgery scheduled December 2010. I cancelled it because on the internet I saw 1,900 mesh complication complaints.” Hope Pagano, 49, got scared when she saw those reports. The Long Island mortgage broker with a thick New York accent was not going to have her incontinence treated
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Endurance Athlete Pat Buchanan Still Trying to Turn Her Life Around After Two Mesh Removal Surgeries Endurance Athlete Pat Buchanan Still Trying to Turn Her Life Around After Two Mesh Removal Surgeries

November 25, 2012 ~ Last June, mesh victim, Pat Buchanan was visited in her Seattle apartment by a television news crew from KING-TV. They filmed her going through her triathlon gear which she had shelved after she began experiencing synthetic mesh complications in 2011.  The story is here. One week later, Buchanan would be going
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Teresa Hughes: Demanding Answers and Raising the Profile of Vaginal Mesh Injuries in the UK Teresa Hughes: Demanding Answers and Raising the Profile of Vaginal Mesh Injuries in the UK

Teresa Hughes, 61, a resident of Liverpool, England, and mother of two, has made so much noise about defective vaginal mesh that last year she was profiled in the UK paper, The Daily Mail. It started: “Thousands of women have been left severely damaged as a result of an implantable ‘sling’ operation to treat problems
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Deb C Suffering: Stress Incontinence Mesh Injuring Women Too Deb C Suffering: Stress Incontinence Mesh Injuring Women Too

 February 3, 2012. That was the day that Deb Contestabile says her health took a downturn from which she has still not recovered. The 46-year-old mother of two boys led a predictable and comfortable life with her husband of almost 22 years who owns a machine shop. They have busy lives with the two boys
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Trudy Thomas:  Suffering in Silence and Financially after Kugel Mesh Settlement Trudy Thomas: Suffering in Silence and Financially after Kugel Mesh Settlement

Trudy Thomas is 53-years-old and the song, “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all,” might be her anthem. Thomas lives in Cascade, Colorado near Colorado Springs and halfway through our profile interview, she had to flee her mountain cabin. Flames invaded the canyons around her home where she lives
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Welcome- Why We're Here

Why We’re Here ~ Putting a Face on Adverse Events Why We’re Here ~ Putting a Face on Adverse Events

April 19, 2013 ~ Hello everyone. I’m Jane Akre, the Editor of MDND. No I’m not mesh-injured but I saw the tremendous need to delve deeper into this story as a journalist when it was brought to my attention four years ago. (See more in the About Us page). A lot has happened since then.
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Feature

Mesh Fails 25 Percent of Time in Vaginal Prolapse Repair Mesh Fails 25 Percent of Time in Vaginal Prolapse Repair

  May 15, 2013 ~ Bloomberg (here) reports surgery to treat pelvic organ prolapse failed about 25 percent of the time within seven years. Reported in the May 15th Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) this is the longest look ever to determine how those who undergo pelvic organ prolapse (POP) repair fared in
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FDA

FDA Workshop on Health of Women

April 9, 2013 ~ According to a new page on the FDA’s website (here), a public workshop will be held on HoW to Improve the Health of Women (HoW).  The purpose is to delve into how some medical devices work differently in women than men. It’s been noted that some hip implants have an early
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Legal News

Carpenter v. American Medical Systems Trial Delayed Carpenter v. American Medical Systems Trial Delayed

May 8, 2013 ~ The trial of Marion Carpenter v. American Medical Systems which was scheduled to begin in San Bernardino California, May 13th, has been delayed until January or February of 2014. Attorney Stewart Albertson tells MDND that decision was made by both sides appearing before Judge Bryan F. Foster, in the San Bernardino
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Medical News

The Links Between Surgical Mesh Complications and the Development of Autoimmune Diseases The Links Between Surgical Mesh Complications and the Development of Autoimmune Diseases

Greetings from Nonie Wideman, a survivor of medical complications from Foreign Body Response (FBR) to synthetic medical mesh. I have spent over 15 years advocating for children and families, over twelve of them as a specialized care provider teaching coping and life skills.  I had to put into practice myself what I taught after a
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Op-Ed

UK Meshies United Group Asks for Govt. Review for Failure of Duty UK Meshies United Group Asks for Govt. Review for Failure of Duty

April 30, 2013 ~ One year ago, Teresa Hughes made history by turning in a petition on behalf of a number of women suffering mesh complications in the United Kingdom (UK) to 10 Downing Street, the home of the Prime Minister. Hughes founded The Meshies United Group in the UK.  See back story here.  She
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Media Reports

Saskatchewan Protest Over Mesh Saskatchewan Protest Over Mesh

May 11, 2013 ~ A group gathered outside a Saskatoon City Hospital Saturday to bring awareness to the dangers of polypropylene surgical mesh. Synthetic mesh is often used as a first-line treatment for incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse (POP) however the women who have had the treatment want to warn others away from that option.
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Your Turn

Teapapers on Immune Boosters Teapapers on Immune Boosters

May 14, 2013~  Linda K. is still recovering from surgery to reconstruct her urethra using her own fascia.  This followed her mesh removal surgery last year. See her October 2011 MDND profile here. As has been the case for three years, infection continues to be a problem.  While she is not a medical professional, Linda K
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Mesh Reading Room Resource

The Role of the Juror in New Jersey The Role of the Juror in New Jersey

What lies ahead for the jurors in the Linda Gross v. Ethicon case  which concluded February 12? While final instructions to the jury are being crafted and debated between both sides, the jury instructions for the New Jersey courts are here: THE ROLE OF THE JUROR: 1.11            PRELIMINARY CHARGE (Approved 11/98, Revised 5/07) [To be
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We hope you find this a helpful resource. National News Editor, Jane Akre, began MDND with the hope of providing the latest news, information and perspective from the regulatory, industry and patient point of view, something that goes under-reported in much of the coverage of medical devices. The public is just now becoming aware that many devices do not undergo the same scrutiny as prescription drugs and are instead grandfathered in under an FDA loophole that has gone largely unchanged since the 1970s. As a result, patients become the post-market clinical trial subjects, and many suffer devastating and permanent injuries.