On the 22nd of November 2017 my dad Charles Kenneth Roy Wheeler of Wimborne Dorset known as Roy went in for surgery. On December 2nd 2017 after 10 days in critical care my dad and husband of Barbara Wheeler passed away. This resulted in a coroners inquest because of the circumstances of his death.
The need for this surgery began back in 1992 when my dad was suffering with ulcerative colitis. This resulted in the removal of his colon and my dad being fitted with a ileostomy bag. In the process of this early operation a hernia was repaired with mesh. Jumping to 2012 my father then had a correction to the mesh insert and revision to the ileostomia.
This was good for several years with him enjoying his allotment, helping neighbours with shopping, and annual trips to France to visit my maternal grandfather’s grave. This began to change in 2016 when my dad started to find things a challenge. First to happen was him having to give up helping the neighbours with shopping, then a trip to France in 2016 my dad became very ill throughout the holiday.
What was causing this swift deterioration in my dads health? This is where what can be disclosed and what cannot comes into play. Throughout this short period of my dads final months he went to hospital twice a week finally leading up to his operation, and as stated earlier this ended in my dad going into intensive care, passing away and a coroners inquest, which was held on the 25th July 2018.
What can be made public via a coroners autopsy report is I believe confidential and as such what is heard in the court room at the inquest and then reported on is essential. Members of the press and the general public need to be part of the process in reporting what is said on the day. I did question those in the court room regarding how much the mesh used for my fathers hernia repair had played in causing infections and if it played in any part in my fathers need for the operation 2017.
The cause of my father’s death is recorded as by elective surgery which part of was “surgical removal of enterocutaneous fistula with mesh infection”. The question I am asking here is. Is there anyone out there who has lost loved ones in situations where surgical mesh was involved in part ? What would be of interest is to know how many other incidences there are, where mesh in part is recorded on a death certificate. My dad felt very isolated in his final years and very alone in his condition. This should not be.
Haydn Wheeler
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