DAVID DID NOT THINK GOLIATH WAS TOO BIG TO HIT. DAVID THOUGHT GOLIATH WAS TOO BIG TO MISS.

From John Riley Bible Study Atlanta, GA early 1990’s


MUELLER NEEDS TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR FALSE, MISLEADING ADVERTISING IN OCTOBER 2012 ISSUES OF TEXAS MONTHLY AND SUPER LAWYER MAGAZINE  ( see red type below)

“M... Mueller, M... Thompson, MD.,* and Wi..ard Bear, along with friend and Georgia lawyer Henry Garrard, have developed much of the science and liability supporting transvaginal mesh litigation, leading to recalls, FDA changes and bellwether trials. “

Mueller makes a mockery of hundreds of thousands of mesh injured patients worldwide.


- and Wi..ard Bear:It is an affront to men and women everywhere that Mueller includes a stuffed bear on the “legal team”. It belittles his clients and makes a mockery of a serious medical disaster.

And publishes false, misleading advertising:

- have developed much of the science and liability supporting transvaginal mesh litigation,

I worked as a paid legal consultant and research analyst to M... Mueller starting in the summer of 2010. He sought me out and contacted me because of the work I had done starting in 2005 when I sued Johnson & Johnson/Ethicon/Gynecare Worldwide for their defective Gynecare TVT Prolene (polypropylene) Bladder Suspension System as a pro se plaintiff.

Mueller and M Thompson and W...d B..ear did not develop the science or all of the litigation strategy. Myself and other experts benefitted him with our expertise and knowledge. He may have paid for access to some of the science and liability we experts developed long before he was ever involved in transvaginal mesh litigation.

- leading to recalls,
Mueller did not become involved in synthetic surgical mesh at all until mid-2010. To say, his work led to recalls is a ridiculous assertion. The work leading to the recalls began at least as early as 2005.

- FDA changes
Again, Mueller did not become involved in synthetic surgical mesh until mid-2010, long after the 1st FDA Public Health Notification warning of the serious risks and complications associated with transvaginal mesh was issued October, 2008. So exactly how did his work and that of M.... Thompson, W...rd Bear and Henry Garrard lead to FDA changes?

- and bellwether trials:
The bellwether trials were precipitated by thousands of adverse event reports filed by patients and their healthcare providers, persistent long term patient advocacy and the FDA’s Public Health Notifications, not M... Mueller.

“R... Kleinman* and J... Larrimore* add unique skills. Mueller terms the pelvic mesh fiasco ‘medieval treatment of women’.”

- “medieval treatment of women.”

Mueller himself demeans women. His office staff turnover would be envied if it was a manufacturer’s inventory. However, how does he maintain continuity for his mesh injured clients when a huge percentage of his staff turns over every 6 -12 months, starting with the loss of his long time partner, Hunter Hillin, in 2010 and key litigator, Kay McCartan in 2011? Why is he dropping women's mesh cases with abdominal sacral colpopexy and not taking any more of their cases?

Mueller needs to lose the bear and take the plight of mesh injured patients seriously. 


Mueller needs to be held accountable for false, misleading advertising.

MESH "EROSION": NOT A MINOR COMPLICATION!

Doctor Disconnect:
Synthetic Surgical Mesh Myths and Lies
By Lana C. Keeton
My Views as a Synthetic Surgical Mesh Patient Survivor
lanamiami@bellsouth.net
January 31, 2012

If you went to your barber for a haircut and he cut out a chunk of your scalp, along with your hair, you would find another barber. Yet it is accepted practice, and even recommended by prominent surgeons…and paid for by insurance companies…to remove “chunks” of a woman’s vagina or bladder, or other tissue or organ, to remove pieces of “eroding” surgical mesh – without anesthesia, I might add. The latest position of a group of surgeons says it’s a “minor” complication easily dealt with in the office. From a patient’s perspective, this is a barbaric practice which doesn’t stop mesh erosion from recurring year after year. Let me tell you, I have had many of those “haircuts” by Dr. G. Willy Davila at the Cleveland Clinic in Weston, FL and it is excruciating pain, not to mention demeaning and expensive.

You have to ask yourself, “Why would any doctor recommend such a procedure?” It’s quite simple. “Erosion” of synthetic surgical mesh, implanted during pelvic organ prolapse repair and/or bladder suspension surgeries, occurs repeatedly in an alarmingly high percentage of women. To tamp down the vast legal liability created by the widespread use of synthetic surgical mesh for these procedures in major institutions such as Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Vanderbilt University and the University of Michigan over at least the last decade, surgeons, institutions, major medical professional societies and industry are purposely diminishing the severity of the mesh complication so benignly called “erosion”. They even created a completely new lexicon of terms to describe mesh. “Exposure” is one of the new terms du’ jour. Marketing, marketing, marketing!

Writing major protest letters to the FDA, and testifying before the FDA’s Ob-Gyn Advisory Committee Panel Meeting in September 2011, surgeons, numerous professional medical societies, institutions and industry spoke out on behalf of foreign body polymers, petroleum waste by-products, and against the authority of the FDA’s warning of the serious complications, with no apparent benefit to women, of trans-vaginal mesh. “Pharmageddon”, as Paul Hilton wrote years ago, has arrived.

As a patient advocate, thousands of men and women have written to me for help. Now I am sure you are asking yourself, Why would mesh injured patients write me, another patient and not a medical professional? Why not just go to the original surgeon who implanted the mesh and get those complications straightened out? They write me because the medical profession and industry are not addressing the vast array of debilitating complications of synthetic surgical mesh. Patients are routinely abandoned or discarded by their physicians. So why is this? For one, the complications are frequently permanent and irreversible.

Other scenarios I am aware of….
- The surgeon is a paid medical consultant/advisor to a mesh manufacturer who is protecting his/her job, the clinic or hospital he/she works for and the mesh manufacturer. He/she does not want to validate what he/she knows to be truth about the dangers of mesh.
- The surgeon is not a paid medical consultant/advisor but paid minions of industry have been less than honest in informing the doctor about the nature, severity and real percentage of complications. The surgeon is unprepared to deal with the unexpected complications.
- The use of the body’s natural inflammatory response prevents the surgeon from explanting what he/she has implanted because, as intended by the manufacturer, the patients tissues have scarred into the interstices of the mesh.
- The surgeon knows the dangers of mesh and fears the loss of his/her career, reputation and financial security if he fails in his attempts to help the patient.



DOCTOR DISCONNECT

So what do these surgeons typically do? Most patients tell me the response is, what I term, the classic mesh lie: “It’s not the mesh.” They deny it is the mesh. Deny the association between the complications and the mesh. Say it is the patients fault. Say the pain does not exist. Say it is a pre-existing condition. Tell the woman she has back problems. Tell her the pain is in her mind and does not really exist. Prescribe an anti-depressant. Tell her the autoimmune disease she suffers is not related to the mesh. Send her for physical therapy (a highly invasive treatment where another person puts their hands into a woman’s vagina to manipulate it). Send her for trigger point therapy. But then, how is it a doctor identifies which injured nerves to inject in a woman’s pelvis for the trigger point therapy to succeed? Or send her for pain management. Or maybe they give her one of those in-office “haircuts”.

In other words, despite multiple physical manifestations to the contrary, doctors disconnect from the reality the pelvis is connected to the rest of a woman’s body and the mesh a surgeon has implanted IS the cause of the complications. In my opinion, the highly touted benefits of synthetic surgical mesh are a lie and the complications are a life sentence for anyone, and I do mean anyone man or woman, implanted with it.

I have to emphasize these myths and lies are the same for men and women implanted with surgical mesh for hernia repair. Mesh hernia repair surgeries just have a different, but very similar, set of dangerous complications. The horror of the majority of mesh complications is that they are permanent and irreversible. Even complete mesh removal does not mean major nerve damage will not result in severe chronic pain and/or permanent disability.

In my very informed opinion, the unnecessary use of synthetic surgical mesh for hernia repair, bladder suspension and pelvic organ prolapse is a disgrace to the medical profession, major hospitals and clinics, educational institutions and medical device makers. Synthetic surgical mesh does not self-implant. Surgeons should protect their patients by putting down the scalpel which only they control. Surgeons must STOP implanting surgical mesh, except in the rare cases where there is no human tissue available.

Based on my near death experience more than 10 years ago following the implantation of Ethicon’s Gynecare TVT mesh bladder sling, I can promise you “erosion” is a debilitating complication, not an in-office “haircut”! 17 procedures and/or surgeries attempting to remove it, chronic debilitating pain, autoimmune disease, bankruptcy and homelessness directly related to “erosion” are not minor complications. Surgery #18 is planned for later this year. Who knows when it will stop? For me, maybe never.

Changing the lexicon from “Erosion” to the word “Exposure” is not the answer. NEVER having had an untested, unsafe petroleum based medical device implanted in me would have been the best option. Surgeons must take a stand for their patients to stop this major medical scandal!

TO THE HONORABLE FDA OBGYN ADVISORY PANEL
GAITHERSBURG, MD
SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

Synthetic Surgical Mesh is a flawed concept. It depends on a misuse of the body’s inflammatory process. The purpose of inflammation is to protect the body. Purposely creating inflammation with the flawed “tension free” synthetic surgical mesh concept starts an irreversible disease process. The body is in a constant state of heightened immune response.

The primary focus of yesterday’s meeting was a doctor’s ability, or lack of ability, to implant synthetic surgical mesh. Does a doctor’s skill change the chemical and physical properties of synthetic mesh? No. Does a doctor’s skill stop the inherent degradation and decomposition of polymers? No. Do doctors prevent shrinking and hardening of mesh? No. The conversation has to change to the cause of the problem, the device itself.

In the last 10 years, I personally have treated with over 20 of the best doctors across America, literally, from South Florida to California. I have had 17 surgeries and/or procedures to “manage” erosion. Dr. G. Willy Davila at the Cleveland Clinic Weston treated me for 7 years and did not stop the chronic pain. Finally in 2010 Dr. Philippe Zimmern at UTSW in Dallas, removed 4 “ of mesh in a 3 hour surgery. Finally the pain stopped. Women do not want their complications to be managed. They do not want the complications associated with mesh. Thank God, I will not suffer anymore in-office trimmings, a barbaric practice which hides the real number of adverse events.

Surgical mesh does not treat causation. Hernia, incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse are symptoms of a condition, torn or weakened tissue. Rather than address the weakened tissue, doctors are treating symptoms of the condition. These are not life threatening conditions. Treatment with the medical device, synthetic surgical mesh, is life threatening.

If, as presented here by so many medical doctors, the cause of the complications is due to limited surgical skills, the design is bad. This is not a practice of medicine issue. This is medical device safety issue. It is not usable because the design is flawed. It is a petroleum waste byproduct, in effect garbage. It should recalled by the FDA, except in rare cases, for all uses including hernia repair, bladder suspension and pelvic organ prolapse.

Here are a few key points.
1. The literature is rife with publications that mesh is not inert. There are too many variables for mesh to be used in a human. It is impossible to standardize.

2. Based on my understanding of mesh, as a medical device expert with 30 years experience and thousands of hours of research, load transfer is impossible to achieve. The biomechanical properties of living tissue are measured by strain. Human tissue is not measured in same context as textiles which are measured by tensile.

3. Textile manufacturing process
The use of chemical additives for the processing itself, along with antimicrobials, adhesion preventatives, physical mishandling by humans, surfactants like nonylphenol which are known endocrine disruptors, cross contamination by bacteria in the manufacturing facilities, uncontrolled chemical reactions between the polymer, the various additi ves and the human body is impossible to quantify. The in vivo degradation process sets up chronic inflammation and a cascade of autoimmune diseases.

The Alternatives
1. Treat the cause of the condition; strengthen all the tissue, not just bridge or scaffold with mesh
2. Base treatment on quality of life and the needs of the individual patient, not on the one size fits all mentality created by commercialized mesh kits
3. Use incontinence products
4. Implant non-cross linked biological meshes which constructively remodel inside the body
5. Prescribe pessaries and other non-surgical removable inserts.
6. Diet, exercise and a wellness mentality to protect and strengthen weakened tissue.

All of this is well documented. All of this is in the known literature. Please stop considering the flawed medical device, synthetic surgical mesh, through the solitary lens of doctor skills. This is a very complex issue and there is no magic button. Stop the use of synthetic surgical mesh except in the rare cases where there is no tissue available. Thank you!

Lana C. Keeton
President & Founder
Truth in Medicine Incorporated
1521 Alton Road, #198 Miami Beach, FL 33139
305.671.9332 phone 800.509.9917 fax 786.566.7780 cell

INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE - PUBLIC MEETING - TESTIMONY
by LANA C. KEETON, PRESIDENT & FOUNDER
TRUTH IN MEDICINE INCORPORATED
SEPTEMBER 16, 2011
My name is Lana Keeton. I am the President and Founder of Truth in Medicine Incorporated, a patient advocacy organization. I personally wish I never heard of the 510(k) but it came slamming into my life back in December 2001. I woke up from surgery with a flesh eating bacteria and spent the next 3 months struggling to survive as the giant abscess on my stomach very slowly closed.
Based on my personal experience, the FDA’s 510 (k) clearance process just doesn’t work. The system is seriously failing the American public.
It has to be replaced. Meant as a bridge when the FDA first started regulating devices in 1976, it has long since become obsolete.
My near death from implantation of synthetic surgical mesh brings me here today. What happened to me should happen to no one. Following surgery for hysterectomy and mesh bladder suspension, I was in the hospital for almost 3 weeks, in bed for 3 months and did not work for 6 months. I lost my health, my home, my business and wound up in bankruptcy. Despite being a long time highly successful steel broker, I was at one time homeless and hungry from a highly touted “minimally invasive” outpatient procedure. I have been to over 20 doctors since 2001 trying to get well and have had multiple mesh removal surgeries. I still require one more surgery.
My bladder became a cottage industry for doctors, hospitals, attorneys and the court system and by now probably has a value of over a million dollars. The cost has been paid by me, my health insurance carrier, when I had health insurance, and the American taxpayer. This is in stark contrast to the original cost of the small piece of implanted Prolene mesh, $1,320.00. $1,320.00 billed to my health insurance company and over a million dollars to deal with the consequences is ludicrous.

Very, very sadly, I am not the only one with a million dollar bladder from the FDA’s 510 (k) 974098 for the Gynecare TVT System. It has been implanted in hundreds of thousands of women with staggering personal and financial costs….permanently disabled patients, broken families and relationships, millions of dollars in cost to the insurance companies, increased premiums to all Americans and court systems overburdened with mass torts where the tab is picked up by the American taxpayer.

My experience and thousands of others is a glaring example of the flawed 510(k) clearance process. The Protegen Sling, was taken off the market as misbranded and adulterated, only 3 months after the Gynecare TVT sling was cleared for sale by the FDA’s 510(k) in October 1998.

Ethicon’s Gynecare TVT sling was cleared by the FDA as being “substantially equivalent” to the recalled predicate device, the Protegen Sling. The TVT sling remains on the market almost 13 years later. Based on Medical Device Reports from Ethicon, at least 10 women have died from the Gynecare TVT sling.

Synthetic Surgical Mesh, a Class II medical device is responsible overall for the deaths of at least 17 women and who knows how many men. Over 6,000 adverse events have been reported to the FDA’s MAUDE database for mesh used for hernia repair, bladder suspension and pelvic organ prolapse since 2005.

But the FDA does not have the regulatory power to recall these 510(k) cleared dangerous devices.

Last week there was a meeting of the FDA’s ObGyn Advisory Panel which recommended re-classifying surgical mesh for pelvic organ prolapse to Class III. Re-classification will take up to 3 years and will only apply to new applications for new mesh devices.

Does anything change for patients? Yes, hundreds of attorney ads warn them of the dangers of mesh and validate them if they are already harmed.

Are the real issues recognized? No. Real experts on the mesh polymers themselves are not consulted.

The panel discussion at the meeting never turned to the real cause of the problem, the medical device itself, a petroleum based waste by product purported to be bio-compatible. Doctors on the panel and in the audience blamed other doctors lack of surgical skills for the high rate of complications caused by a bad medical device. ACOG and AUGS and industry and others called for better doctor training, better patient selection and better informed consent.

If mesh were a baby stroller that had killed 17 babies and injured over 6,000 b, it would be off the market. The manufacturer would never suggest better training of moms on how to push the stroller. But that is exactly what happened last week at the FDA Ob-Gyn panel meeting. This process is fundamentally flawed.

Does a doctor’s skill change the chemical and physical properties of synthetic mesh? No. Does a doctor’s skill stop the inherent degradation and decomposition of polymers? No. Do doctors prevent shrinking and hardening of mesh? No.

Even with the panel recommendation, all synthetic meshes for all uses currently cleared for sale by the FDA’s 510(k) will remain on the market. Patients continue to be harmed.

Today, this morning, patients across America are being put at risk by life-threatening

medical devices implanted for a non-life threatening condition, weakened or torn tissue. You don’t usually hear of someone dying of a hernia or incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse. But patients do die at alarming rates from the 510 (k) cleared medical device, synthetic surgical mesh.
The FDA has the duty and the obligation to protect the public health and to put patient safety first, before all other stakeholders. Please stop the great concern voiced by doctors, the FDA and industry about the burden placed on industry. Those who profit mightily should shoulder all the associated costs.
Please end the practice of patients paying the price of bad medical devices forcing them to live the consequences of decisions beyond their control and without their knowledge.

Safe and effective devices tested and proven by a different and better FDA regulatory framework will change the medical ecosystem, taking the grievous burden off individual patients, lawsuits out of American courts and significantly reduce the cost of healthcare to all Americans. The FDA’s 510(k) simply does not work anymore! Please replace it with a better regulatory process that truly protects patients!

Respectfully,
Lana C. Keeton
Founder and President
Truth in Medicine Incorporated
1521 Alton Road, #198
Miami Beach, FL 33139

phone: 305-671-9332 cell phone: 786-566-7780
e-mail: lanakeeton@truthinmedicine.us.com
website: www.truthinmedicine.us.com
Regardless of the decisions relating to the 510(k), please implement the following now.
1) Educate the American public about the difference between Pre Market Approval and Pre Market Notification Clearance Process.
2) Make patient labeling mandatory for all medical devices.
3) Make reporting mandatory with clear consequences for silence by doctors, hospitals and medical device makers.
4) Create a very specific guide for the FDA/CDRH to make better use of their regulatory authority. The decision making process for when and how to use FDA’s regulatory authority should not be left to the discretion of FDA/CDRH employees.
5) Include a mechanism which stops medical device makers from paying doctors to misuse their legal authority to sell products off label to increase the sales of their products.

Let's Get The Mesh Out!

Good morning. My name is Lana Keeton. I am the President and Founder of Truth in Medicine, a patient advocacy organization. I am a medical device expert, with over 5000 hours of research into synthetic surgical mesh used for hernia repair, bladder suspension and pelvic organ prolapse. My experience as a steel broker for over 30 years fueled my research into the physical and chemical properties of polymers used for synthetic mesh and I have a unique perspective.

It’s really hard for me to stand here today in front of a room where many are hell bent on implanting garbage into humans. While the rest of the world is going green, doctors and device makers are going dark. Doctors and Device Makers should follow the example of the well known company, Waste Management, and dump Synthetic Surgical Mesh, a petroleum waste by product, a recycled garbage into the city dump.

Medical advisors & consultants, very well compensated, rally around surgical mesh like they are saving mankind. Mesh is not a polio vaccine. Mesh is not a cure for whooping cough. Mesh does not cure anything. It is a petroleum based waste by product from the gasoline refining process. I ask you, if they won’t put it in a car, why are surgeons implanting it into humans? I ask the FDA, the CDRH, this panel to make a wise decision.

There is group of pelvic organ prolapse surgeons, who are outraged their “toolkit” has been raided. They submitted a paper to the FDA, calling for the FDA to involve itself in practice of medicine issues only they, the surgeons themselves, have the power to change. These surgeons now take the position their “unskilled” counterparts do not properly implant synthetic mesh, causing the large number of complications. I strongly feel these surgeons should take a closer look at the bad tool. Have they taken in to consideration perhaps the usability of the design is flawed? Guess not since they are defending the tools in their toolkit as opposed to the thousands and thousands of injured patients…and let’s not forget the dead ones, either.

We probably would not be having this meeting today if doctors who implant mesh actually researched polymers themselves, instead of depending on the company who makes it and the sales rep. Or if they actually had mesh implanted in them.

Doctors look at the inflammatory reaction of the body to synthetic meshes and the ensuing disease process based on their medical training. They do not look at the chemicals causing the disease process.

So instead of better patient selection, better physician training or better informed consent recommended by this group of surgeons, let’s stop placing ticking time bombs of petroleum waste byproducts into women for POP and SUI and into men and women for hernias.

Respectfully, the FDA’s Ob-Gyn Advisory Panel Meeting scheduled to make recommendations here at this meeting on the use of synthetic surgical meshes is unqualified for its intended purpose, much like the synthetic meshes widely implanted in humans. Without a chemical textile engineer, a microbiologist, a human tissue engineer and other experts on synthetic polymers [polypropylene, polyethylene terephathlate, etc….] used in the manufacture of medical textiles, no valid conclusions will be drawn.

I am calling for all synthetic meshes to become controlled substances requiring the surgeon to write a prescription. Implanting surgeons should manage and/or pay for all mesh complications such as surgical mesh removal, pain management or other therapies necessary to manage the complications for at least 5 years. All synthetic meshes should be considered a drug under the FDA’s Pre-Market Approval Process. The chemical reaction of these drugs in concert with the chemical make-up of synthetic mesh implanted in the body is a biological disaster.

Synthetic Meshes have to be recalled, reclassified and tested as a drug for all chemical additives used in the textile manufacturing process, including antimicrobials, surfactants, dyes and other chemicals hazardous to human health. Thank you!

Institute of Medicine Public Health Effectiveness of the FDA 510 (k) Clearance Process

The Institute of Medicine has a Committee on the Public Health Effectiveness of the FDA 510(k) Clearance Process. The Committee held a public workshop on June 14-15, 2010 in Washington, DC. The purpose of the workshop was for the committee to gather information related to the statement of task.

I attended the workshop and testified along with 5 members of the organization I founded, Truth in Medicine Incorporated. My written testimony follows. If you go to the following link, you will be able to see my actual testimony on video. When you get to the web page, scroll down to Public Comment Section and go to the timeline 11:00 minutes:

http://www.tvworldwide.com/events/iom/100614/default.cfm?id=12479&type=flv&test=0&live=0

My name is Lana Keeton. I am the President and Founder of Truth in Medicine Incorporated, a patient advocacy organization. I am here despite my near death from the implantation of a medical device, Synthetic Surgical Mesh, in December 2001. I was in the hospital for almost 3 weeks, in bed for 3 months and did not work for 6 months. I lost my health, my home, my business and wound up in bankruptcy. I have been homeless and hungry in the last 8 years and I live in chronic pain. I have been to over 20 doctors since 2001 trying to get well and have had multiple mesh removal surgeries. In fact, I have another surgery scheduled for next Tuesday.

My bladder has become a cottage industry for doctors, hospitals, attorneys and the court system and by now probably has a value of over a million dollars. That cost has been paid by me, my health insurance carrier, when I had health insurance, and the American taxpayer. This is in stark contrast to the original cost of this small piece of Prolene mesh about $1,200.00. $1,200.00 to create it and over a million dollars to deal with the consequences is insane. Johnson & Johnson may have made a $1,000.00 profit and myself and the American public is still paying for it 8 years later.

Clearance of the Gynecare TVT Prolene Mesh System sold by Ethicon & its parent company Johnson & Johnson was a medical marketing decision. I was not included in the decision made by Gynecare, by Ethicon, by Johnson & Johnson to put an unproven, unsafe dangerous petroleum based permanently placed medical device into the stream of commerce. The FDA cleared the device for sale through the 510(k). No patient should ever, ever, ever have to travel the journey I have traveled because of an unproven medical device.

The 510(k) clearance process is the Fox guarding the Hen House. It does not protect patients. The choice to make an informed decision of whether to take the risk of serious harm or death vs. the benefits is not an option for patients. Medical Marketing trumps patient safety.

The FDA does not educate the public, or even its own employees, medical devices are cleared through a process not requiring proof of safety or efficacy for Class I or Class II devices. An uninformed, unaware public is daily endangered by unsafe, unproven medical devices.

The battle cry of industry is innovation. They say innovation will be thwarted without this fast, easy money access to selling products. My question is: what innovation? How long has it been since polio was cured? When was the small pox vaccine created? A very long time ago. Is there a cure for cancer? No. Has AIDS been eradicated? No.

What pharmaceutical company is leading the charge to find these cures? Who knows? Do pharmaceutical companies sell sickness to the worried well? Yes. Is there an epidemic of disease mongering in the U.S.? Yes.

The 510 (k) clearance process is highly flawed. You as a committee have the duty and the obligation to put patient safety first and foremost for any and all clearance/approval processes at the FDA/CDRH.

Please stop the Conspiracy of Silence leaving patients in the dark. I recommend you make the following changes to the 510(k) clearance process:

1)Educate the American public about the difference between Pre Market Approval and Pre Market Notification Clearance Process.

2)Make patient labeling mandatory for all medical devices.

3)Make reporting mandatory with clear consequences for silence by doctors, hospitals and medical device makers.

4)Create a very specific guide for the FDA/CDRH to make better use of their regulatory authority. The decision making process for when and how to use FDA’s regulatory authority should not be left to the discretion of FDA/CDRH employees.

5)Include a mechanism which stops medical device makers from paying doctors to misuse their legal authority to sell products off label to increase the sales of their products.

I am not the only one with a million dollar bladder. 510 (k) #974098 for the Gynecare TVT system alone has astounding financial costs associated with it….disabled patients who are no longer functioning members of society, broken families and relationships, millions of dollars in cost to the insurance companies for the multiple surgeries each disabled patient requires, increased premiums to all Americans as the insurance companies pass along these costs, the court systems became overburdened with thousands of lawsuits, the cost of which is again passed along to all Americans through the taxes they pay to support the court systems.

And the result…catastrophic devastation to unsuspecting Americans who believed any product used in a hospital had been proven safe and effective by the FDA. That is simply not the truth. You can change it so none of you or your loved ones becomes one of those unsuspecting Americans.

Please end the practice of patients paying the price of bad medical devices forcing them to live the consequences of industry’s decisions without their knowledge.

Respectfully,
Lana C. Keeton
Founder and President
Truth in Medicine Incorporated
1521 Alton Road, #198
Miami Beach, FL 33139

phone: 305-671-9332
e-mail: lanakeeton@truthinmedicine.us.com
website: www.truthinmedicine.us.com
blog: www.theladyisachamp.blogspot.com

Lana Keeton Wins Medical Negligence Verdict Against Dr. Bernard Cantor

Dateline: Miami, Florida Patients Advocate Lana Keeton, Founder and President of Truth in Medicine, scored a victory in court. Ms. Keeton won a verdict against defendant, Dr. Bernard Cantor, a Miami doctor, for medical negligence. The victory is a first in a lawsuit involving the Johnson & Johnson Gynecare TVT Prolene synthetic surgical mesh. Ms. Keeton underwent a hysterectomy and bladder suspension in December 2001 that almost ended her life.

Successfully treated for a necrotizing soft tissue infection at Jackson Memorial Hospital, following the initial surgery performed at Mt Sinai Medical Center on Miami Beach by Dr. Bernard Cantor, Ms. Keeton spent several months recuperating. Her experience has made her a formidable force in advocating for other injured patients.

Testifying at trial, Ms. Keeton stated she was not given proper informed consent for the implantation of the mesh. Dr. Cantor’s description to Ms. Keeton of the Prolene synthetic surgical mesh was simply “It’s a new tape. You will really like it.” No mention was made of the fact that the “tape” was a permanently placed medical device which cannot be removed without significant damage to tissue once implanted in the body. Nor did Dr. Cantor tell Ms. Keeton the product could be improperly implanted during the procedure or could erode (move by itself within the body) to cause permanent irreversible complications which she suffers. Dr. Cantor also omitted his lack of experience in the performing the procedure and complications in patients he had operated on prior to Ms. Keeton which required re-operation of the patient.

Ms. Keeton and Mr. James Shull, the Vice President of Truth in Medicine, were instrumental in getting the FDA to issue a Public Health Notification warning doctors and patients of the serious risks and complications of trans-vaginal placement of synthetic surgical mesh in October 2008. Based on their work, many law firms began filing lawsuits on behalf of other patients permanently harmed by synthetic mesh.

In an e-mail to a Truth in Medicine member in September 2009, Dr. Bobby Shull, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dept Obstetrics and Gynecology, Texas A&M’s Scott & White Clinic in Temple, Texas says:

“Personally, I am pleased there is a patient advocacy group who is involved in helping us learn more about these products. My feeling is we will look back on this time with a sense of ‘why did anyone ever convince women to be subjected to these treatments?’ when little real information existed on the risks to be assumed.

There are other examples in gynecology; the Dalkon Shield for example or earlier sub-urethral slings…Protegen is one. Other products have been removed from the market only after a number of women were found to have been harmed.

It is unfortunate that women are and have been harmed. Perhaps with your group's influence the current situation can be changed for the sake of all the other women who are yet to be treated.”

Truth in Medicine’s primary initiative to achieve its’ mission is an Informed Consent Project with the University of Miami’s Bioethics Department headed by Kenneth W. Goodman, PhD. The focus is to create a comprehensive Informed Consent Tool Kit website for medical devices, the first being for synthetic surgical mesh. This would significantly lower the cost and increase the quality of healthcare.

Ms. Keeton notes the proliferation of synthetic surgical mesh “kits” have emboldened surgeons lacking the requisite surgical skills to do operations that have bad outcomes for the patients because, among other things, they do not know how to deal with the complications.

Ms. Keeton says, “The victory over Dr. Bernard Cantor signifies a big step forward in stopping future harm of other patients.”