WOMEN whose lives have been ruined by surgical mesh implants have issued an emotional plea for a specialist US surgeon to be allowed to treat them in Scotland.
Sufferers insist St Louis-based Dr Dionysios Veronikis would help rid them of the debilitating pain they have suffered for years – and allow them to lead normal lives again.
It comes after Scotland’s health boards were last year told to “immediately halt” the use of mesh implants to treat pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence.
The use of mesh was suspended in all but "exceptional circumstances" in 2014, but hundreds of procedures were still carried out despite fears over painful side-effects.
Speaking in Holyrood, Lorna Farrell, 53, from Glasgow, said she was in “constant chronic pain”.
Fighting back tears, she said: “I’m disgusted and excited in one, because I just can’t see an argument why this doctor can’t come to Scotland. He has to come. We deserve to get our lives back.”
She made the comments at a press conference hosted by Scottish Labour MSP Neil Findlay, who has spent years campaigning alongside victims.
He pleaded with the Scottish Government and NHS bosses to pay for Dr Veronikis to fly over to Scotland and carry out his pioneering surgery.
The calls attracted cross-party support, with former SNP Health Secretary and long-standing mesh campaigner Alex Neil insisting Dr Veronikis could help train Scottish surgeons in his "micro-surgery" technique.
Dr Veronikis, a world-leading mesh expert, has offered to come to Scotland if the NHS pays his costs and covers his earnings.
Responding to the pleas, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman told MSPs her "mind is not closed" to the offer.
But she added: "It is not entirely my decision. I have not refused Dr Veronikis' offer. It is not for me to accept that offer. It is for me to discuss with the clinical community how their learning and techniques could, in their opinion, be improved and enhanced and we will do that."
Mesh sufferer Dr Mary Rose McGlaughlan earlier told how Dr Veronikis had changed her life after she paid £15,000 to travel to the US from Belfast.
She said doctors in the UK had performed multiple internal investigations, but told her they would only ever be able to remove up to 11cm of mesh. Dr Veronikis eventually removed the full 28cm.
Mr Findlay said it would be “fairly straightforward” to get Dr Veronikis registered as a specialist in the UK, allowing him to treat woman and train other surgeons.
Mesh implants were commonly used to relieve incontinence and pelvic prolapse, particularly after childbirth.
But many women have been left in excruciating pain as a result of the procedure, which often cannot be fully reversed.
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