Support Sue Waters to get Life-saving Surgery

$10,389 donated

Given by 103 generous donors in around 9 months

Sue Waters needs life-saving surgery from a specialist mesh surgeon in the US. Without surgery Sue is at high risk of dying from infection.

Nelson / Tasman

Sue Waters is a naturopath from Motueka. Due to medical misadventure, Sue needs urgent surgery from a mesh specialist, Dr Veronikis in Missouri, USA, to remove surgical mesh tape from her bladder. ACC have refused to cover costs for her care. There is no one in New Zealand with the proven specialized expertise required. Sue has repeated episodes of septic shock, and antibiotics are losing their effectiveness, meaning her mission to get to the Missouri for surgery is urgent. Without surgery Sue has a high risk of dying from infection.

After 12 years as a nurse and a further 21 as a naturopath helping others in her community, it is now Sue's time to reach out for assistance to cover the high costs of her life-saving surgery.

Sue's support team has gotten together to assist in ensuring Sue gets the proper care she needs by setting up this Give-A-Little page for her to help fund her trip and surgery.

Sue is one of many in New Zealand who ACC has refused to support (see Mesh Down Under's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MeshDownUnder ). There is much controversy over the use of mesh implantation. Here is a kiwi woman's story which is similar to Sue's: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/77412959/kiwi-woman-forced-to-pay-for-operation-in-us-to-remove-painful-surgical-mesh.

In April of this year, a Greymouth woman won her case against the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) following botched surgery 13 years ago. http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11627160

This case will hopefully set a precedent for cases such as these now being covered without a long and expensive battle for the suffering patients.

Here is also a link to a page seeking more review of the use of surgical mesh: http://www.meshdownunder.co.nz

Sue was recently featured in the Nelson Mail (http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/80538067/woman-faces-long-health-battle-after-surgical-mesh-operation.html) and couple of days later there was a Radio NZ interview with a mesh campaigner and a NZ surgeon: (http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201803190/surgical-mesh-campaigner) where the issues with the use of mesh were outlined.

Tina Mortensen's involvement (page creator)

I am a good friend and long time patient of Sue Waters. Sue has her own naturopathy clinic in Motueka, where she has helped so many in her community. I am so grateful to have Sue's health expertise at hand and it causes me much distress to think that her life is at risk. She has frequently suffered much pain and danger from her repeated infections. She is hardworking, very gifted and kind-hearted and it is now her turn to receive the help she urgently needs in the form of donations for her life-saving operation.