Opinion: Why the US Can't Get its Mesh Message Out

‍Mesh Medical Device News Desk, July 26, 2017 - The following is one woman's opinion on why the US is not having the same outcome in getting out its mesh message to the media.  What she doesn't mention is that law firms representing the injured have all warned their clients to keep quiet and suffer in silence, unlike the united and vocal voices in Scotland and England.

She also omits that there have been successful rallies organized by MAM Mesh Awareness Movement that have brought together many women to stand present at court and at a J&J Shareholder's meeting.

Let's not forget Johnson & Johnson has a family of products and is also a major mesh manufacturer. Media might be loathe to bite the advertising hand that feeds.

Here is the Opinion of Still Standing, who is herself a mesh injured woman:

"I debated whether to respond to this call for one voice.

MAM rally in Charleston, WV in 2015

"I've stated my observation about this before, but here goes. One of the reasons American mesh injured women are not getting the attention it deserves is there is not one voice, one message that we could rally around. Take a look at the communication the British, Scottish and Australian women are putting out there. They want pelvic mesh removed from the market until further study. It is consistent and has great merit. It is a clear message that other non mesh people can get behind.

"They are not jumping in and excoriating the justice system, they are not saying that all polypropylene in any device should be removed from the market, they are not drawing scientific conclusions about mesh based on just their opinion, they are not pitted against each other with unkind remarks about who should be in their group and who shouldn’t based on some arbitrary judgement about who has the most pain and suffering. They are not saying the government is conspiring to hurt them because they are women.

"Here is what they are doing.

"They have crafted a message for the future. They do not want other women to suffer the way that they have suffered. This is a group that is fighting to prevent this from happening in the future. I’m sure they all want justice for themselves, but that is not the narrative they are using in this request to ban pelvic mesh. I even saw in one articles that she wanted two women to be prepared for an interview at Parliament.

"They are carefully controlling this message so that physicians and other people in power to make this happen hear that one true message that the press can rally around.

It is working. We could learn a lot about how they have handled this issue." ###