Mum ‘butchered’ by vaginal mesh and left battling faecal incontinence is awarded £1million
A MUM left in excruciating pain after a vaginal mesh implant has been awarded a record settlement of at least £1million from the NHS.
Yvette Greenway-Mansfield suffered traumatic complications following the surgery at University Hospital Coventry in 2009.
While initially fine, she later experienced agonising pain and bleeding and was left battling faecal and urinary incontinence.
The now-59-year-old filed a medical negligence claim, which this week found the procedure was carried out prematurely and unnecessarily.
Her consent form had also been altered to include additional risks after Mrs Greenway-Mansfield had already signed it, it concluded.
She described the £1m compensation as a "huge relief" but said thousands of other women have dealt with similar damage without payment.
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"I’m not the only one. There are thousands of mes," she told The Guardian.
"There should be a pot of money to provide damages for these women and a care plan in place as an automatic response to mesh-damaged people.
"It comes down to a perception of women and women’s health problems. We’ve all had enough of it."
Mrs Greenway-Mansfield first visited her GP in 2009 after she started needing to wee more often and developed stomach pain.
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She was diagnosed with uterine prolapse - when the muscles and tissue in the pelvis weaken and one or more organs slip down from their normal position and bulge into the vagina.
Doctors recommended she have her uterus removed and a transvaginal tape (TVT) mesh implant fitted to act as a kind of scaffold.
They used to be common following childbirth, but thousands of women experienced sexual dysfunction and internal damage and they are now considered a "last resort".
Eight years after having hers inserted, Mrs Greenway-Mansfield felt sudden, severe pain and bleeding.
Medics suspected the mesh might have started to erode her vaginal wall, she said.
It was eventually removed in February 2020, but she continues to battle urinary and faecal incontinence and chronic pain today.
Lime Solicitors, which represented Mrs Greenway-Mansfield, alleged she was unaware of the potential risks.
The claim found possible complications like tape erosion, pain, an overactive bladder and deep vein thrombosis were not included in her original consent form, which she kept a copy of.
It also failed to mention a cystoscopy - a procedure to look inside the bladder using a thin camera.
I’m not the only one. There are thousands of mes.
Yvette Greenway-Mansfield
Mrs Greenway-Mansfield said: "I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I felt utterly vindicated."
The operation was also carried out before other options, such as bladder training and physiotherapy, were explored, it was said.
Neil Clayton, clinical negligence partner, said: "The University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust owed a duty of care to ensure it obtained Mrs Greenway-Mansfield’s fully informed consent to any surgical procedure and advised her of the likely risks that could arise as a result.
"The gynaecologist proceeded to surgery prematurely before exhausting all behavioural and medical options.
"Furthermore, she carried out the wrong operation for the wrong condition and proceeded to surgery unnecessarily.
"It is particularly shocking that Mrs Greenway-Mansfield signed a consent form that was altered afterwards to include risks she was never made aware of.
"No amount of money can fully compensate Mrs Greenway-Mansfield for the pain she has suffered and will continue to experience, and the lifelong care she will require, which all stems back to her not requiring mesh in the first place."
A spokesperson for University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust said: "We have directly offered our sincerest apologies to Mrs Greenway-Mansfield and recognise how her life has been affected by this procedure in 2009.
"The provision of procedures using vaginal mesh to treat stress urinary incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse has been paused in England since 2019, and specialist centres were created in 2022.
"We hope the settlement will enable Mrs Greenway-Mansfield to meet her ongoing care needs and provide security for her and her family into the future."
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Many women have shared their horrifying experience with vaginal mesh, but the exact number of those "catastrophically" impacted is unknown.
Leading an official review into the scandal, Baroness Julia Cumberlege estimated it to be "tens of thousands".