Kath Sansom

Award winning patient safety campaigner including #SheInspires 🦋Agent of Change & Tenacious Awards for @meshcampaign

[Kath Sansom @KathSansom]

For Sling The Mesh please see @meshcampaign Thanks all. Pic is of a fellow campaigner

[Sling the Mesh @MeshCampaign]

American #mesh injured patients say compensation claims barely cover their mesh complication care costs. https://t.co/Dcu6thWvtW

[Sling the Mesh @MeshCampaign]

American patients injured by #mesh for #prolapse #SUI and #hernia describe not being believed by doctors, struggling to access appropriate medical care, and finding that compensation payouts fall far short of meeting their long-term financial needs. https://t.co/MRvQna61Bp

[Sling the Mesh @MeshCampaign]

⚠️ 🚑 In 2000 & 2003 doctors warned that #TVT mesh slings lacked long-term evidence. They also said widespread removals could have serious consequences for women and the NHS. That tragic prophecy is now being played out in mesh removal centres across the UK.

[Sling the Mesh @MeshCampaign]

Covidien hit with $88M verdict in hernia mesh trial which will hopefully lead the way in accountability for other American patients. But where is the justice for UK patients suffering from this #hernia mesh product?
https://t.co/YJ68vaebGR

[Sling the Mesh @MeshCampaign]

Jury orders Medtronic to pay $88 million after finding surgeons were not adequately warned about a #Hernia #Mesh

https://t.co/pEGyPg536m

[Sling the Mesh @MeshCampaign]

Thankyou @SaferSurgeryUK for inviting me to speak at your annual conference to represent the voices of the #mesh injured community.

[Sling the Mesh @MeshCampaign]

Absolutely unforgivable behaviour from rogue ex lawyer Darren Hanison who had 305 mesh injured clients on his books - judge found he abused the court process https://t.co/9tAFnMzo0r

[Kath Sansom @KathSansom]

Jury Says Medtronic Owes $88 Million in First Trial Over Covidien’s #Hernia #Mesh https://t.co/bAiUBZ2QnC

[Sling the Mesh @MeshCampaign]

A court has ordered Medtronic to pay an American man $88m in damages for failing to warn about the risks of Covidien #hernia #mesh

Medtronic - "We remain confident in Covidien’s hernia mesh products"
https://t.co/RZ4aznRv82

[Kath Sansom @KathSansom]

@MeshCampaign @Malriel

[Sling the Mesh @MeshCampaign]

🔖☀️Please email your MP and ask them to write to Health Secretary Yvette Cooper asking her to support mandatory Sunshine-style legislation requiring disclosure of industry payments to the UK health sector. It's time to bring these payments into the light for #patientsafety

[Artur Nadolny @ArturNadol7566]

THE MESH SCANDAL

Kath Sansom @KathSansom used to write the news. Now she is the news.

In 2015, three weeks after a mesh operation left her in constant pain, she started a campaign called Sling The Mesh @meshcampaign. It now has nearly 13k women in it.

A survey of 653 mesh injured women, run by her campaign, found something shocking. Nearly half had thought about suicide. One in 20 had tried to take their own life. One in 20 self harm regularly. Almost 8 out of 10 struggle with depression or anxiety.

One woman named in press coverage, Lucinda Methuen-Campbell, died by suicide after years of what her partner described as unbearable pain from bowel mesh complications. Another woman, Eileen, 75, from Loanhead in Midlothian, became the first person in the UK to have mesh listed as a cause of death on her death certificate.

9 out of 10 women in the survey were never told they were getting a permanent piece of plastic put inside them. 98 percent were never told there were other options.

This is what the government has known since 2018, when mesh surgery was finally paused. It is what Baroness Cumberlege's review confirmed in 2020. It is what the Patient Safety Commissioner @PSCommissioner repeated in February 2024, recommending 20000 pounds to start for each injured woman, with more to follow, for as many as 25000 women.

That recommendation is now 2 years and 5 months old. The government scheme built to deliver it has paid out to nobody.

Some women have been paid, but not by the state. In August 2024, 140 women in England won payouts from the companies that made the mesh, Johnson and Johnson, Bard, and Boston Scientific. In 2026, 25 more women in Wales got compensation after officials admitted their consent was never properly taken. That is roughly 165 women. Out of up to 25k.

Since the government made its promise, Britain has changed Prime Minister 3 times. Rishi Sunak was in office when it was made. Keir Starmer took a letter women hand delivered to Downing Street in March 2026 asking for a date. Then he resigned. Andy Burnham is now in charge, with Yvette Cooper as his new Health Secretary.

Women are living with pain so bad that some of them do not want to be alive. The system that caused it changes leaders faster than it changes anything for them.

If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide, Samaritans are free to call any time on 116 123.

Sources: @meshcampaign @KathSansom @PSCommissioner @BBCNews @HSJnews

[Sling the Mesh @MeshCampaign]

Did you know millions is paid by pharma to the UK healthcare sector every year?

💰 2025 = £929m

Around 70% of that is research payments - which is all lumped together - creating a blind spot of lack of transparency about who the money is going to.

https://t.co/FIuS96mKVf

[Kath Sansom @KathSansom]

Re sharing this today as it feels important to never forget

[Sling the Mesh @MeshCampaign]

Oxford surgeon Simon Jackson has been criticised by a judge for giving evidence that was "wholly unsatisfactory" "cherry-picking" & "lacked balance" as a medical expert for an #NHS health board defending a high value #mesh case. See p44-45 of court docs: https://t.co/4YeZrjckom

[Sling the Mesh @MeshCampaign]

💰£929 million in pharma funding to UK health sector. Let that sink in

➡️ The Assoc of British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) is resisting full disclosure of R&D payments

😱There's no disclosure for medical devices like #mesh

➡️ Disclosure UK link https://t.co/dp9120YX7D.

[Nanny Leopard @joannel49716947]

@MeshCampaign @KathSansom Redress for those affected by mesh etc would cost peanuts compared to the staggering amount of money that goes through the healthcare sector. We were guinea pigs and many people made millions out of our suffering. @andyburnham @AngelaRayner need to make such payments transparent

[Kath Sansom @KathSansom]

@JamesTitcombe I wish this surprised me

[James Titcombe @JamesTitcombe]

“….recommendations her team had wanted to make about improving the education and training of midwives had been watered down after intervention from NHS England.”

This is absolutely appalling ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

[Sling the Mesh @MeshCampaign]

Story from Russia sees a surgeon celebrating giving this woman a #hernia #mesh repair at the same time as a Cesarean section. Goes without saying this woman will not have been warned of any risks of hernia mesh :( https://t.co/F0cdAqRp8f

[Marie Lyon @Malriel]

Congratulations from our families damaged by HPT Primodos. Please don’t forget us @acdhpt