Today's big news on the Essure crisis comes courtesy of Thomas Hedges of TheRealNews.com. It's a tale of Bayer Pharma, fetal deaths, and illegal kickbacks to doctors.Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA), a champion of the E-Sisters, those women who have been damaged by Bayer's "permanent" birth control device, Essure, held a press call Wednesday morning.Allegations mentioned by Rep. Fitzpatrick include the under-reporting of fetal deaths caused by Essure, as well as tens of thousands of dollars in illegal kickbacks being paid to doctors who purchase Essure kits.Bayer declined to comment on the illegal kickbacks - big surprise! However, Amanda Dykeman, an E-Sister, lent her voice and her story to Rep. Fitzpatrick's call. She was very frank in spelling out that Bayer is paying kickbacks, often in the form of $20K pieces of medical equipment, to doctors who purchase at least 25 Essure kits per monthBayer did issue a response to the claim it is under-reporting fetal deaths.

Photo courtesy of TheRealNews.com[/caption]The Essure device was given the highest level of FDA approval in 2002. The Pre-market Approval (PMA) protects Bayer from any legal action pertaining to damages caused by Essure, even fetal and patient deaths. Rep. Fitzpatrick is sponsoring the "E-Free Act," a piece of legislation that would not only strip Essure and Bayer of the PMA protections, but would force the company and the FDA to remove the damaging product from the market.[caption id="attachment_9003" align="aligncenter" width="300"]Photo courtesy of TheRealNews.com

I, along with Rep. Fitzpatrick and 27K+ victims of this awful product (and their families) support getting Essure off the market as soon as possible and opening the path for all of the injured victims to receive the compensation they deserve.There are support groups on Facebook for women who suffer from "E-Hell" as they call it, as well as for the men in their lives. The groups are Essure Problems, a closed group and the aptly named Mad Men of Essure, also a closed group. If you or a loved one have been affected by the Essure device, I urge you to contact the admins of these groups to be admitted. The amount of information and support you will find there is amazing.