Guest guest Posted June 3, 2004 Report Share Posted June 3, 2004 http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl? ACCT=104 & STORY=/www/story/06-01-2004/0002185029 & EDATE= Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 4, 2004 Report Share Posted June 4, 2004 It's the link problem, here it is, one of my girlfriends at work went it to me... Checks to be Processed for Breast Implant Victims Starting Today Effective Date Set on Heels of FDA Decision to Maintain Restrictions LOS ANGELES, June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Today is the effective date in the Dow Corning bankruptcy, finally allowing injured people's claims to be processed. The court-appointed claims administrator for the $2.35 billion fund said that thousands of letters will go out June 1st and that the first checks should be mailed June 15th. The case started in 1995 when the former breast implant manufacturer filed for bankruptcy in the face of thousands of claims. The details of the company's bankruptcy plan were confirmed in 1999, but numerous appeals stalled the implementation. The effective date comes on the heels of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) February 8th decision to maintain restrictions on the sale of silicone breast implants. Despite this news, last year over 300,000 women received breast implants of all types, even though the risks are poorly understood.(i) According to the FDA, and the manufacturers' own data, nearly all implants fail, most women require corrective surgery within a few years, and many women suffer painful and debilitating complications. When the FDA decided not to lift restrictions, their scientists acknowledged that long-term health risks were still unknown. Implant survivors may receive from $2,000 to $250,000. Details are available to the public at http://www.dcsettlement.com or by calling 1-866-874-6099. " Women in the Dow Corning settlement can finally get some closure, " said Sybil Niden Goldrich, the consumer representative on the Tort Claimants Committee and founder of the Command Trust Network, an information clearinghouse on breast implants. " Now that corporate interests are no longer distorting research funding on this issue, we hope that women and their treating physicians may finally learn the long-term effects of silicone in the body and how to best get relief from their symptoms. " Ms. Goldrich, a breast cancer survivor, received breast implants after a bilateral mastectomy. Her implants were replaced four times as each set failed. Debilitating symptoms kept her bedridden until she had the implants removed for good, after which her health improved. Years later, silicone was removed from her uterus and ovaries during a hysterectomy. A biopsy also revealed silicone in her liver. What Women Need to Know About the Risks of Breast Implants and Staying Healthy In February of this year, the FDA decided not make silicone gel breast implants widely available due to staff scientists' concern about high failure rates, painful and debilitating local complications, and the lack of data on the long-term safety of silicone in the body.(ii) The long-term health risks of breast implants, either silicone or saline, have never been studied. Assumptions about safety have been based on research that included women who had breast implants for just a few months or years. However, when the National Cancer Institute studied women who had breast implants for at least eight years, they found a 21 percent overall increase in cancers for women with silicone gel breast implants, compared to the general population.(iii) The incidence of leukemia and stomach, cervical, vulvar and brain cancers was twice as high for women with implants (ibid). An FDA team reported in 2001 that women who had ruptured implants for over ten years are significantly more likely to be diagnosed with fibromyalgia and other illnesses.(iv) Implants do not last a lifetime. Nearly half of all silicone implants rupture within ten years, and three-quarters rupture in twenty.(v) The rate is believed to be higher for saline implants. With a silent rupture, women cannot see a difference in their breasts, and often do not know that their implant has broken. In this case, an MRI is the best way to detect a broken implant. In addition, one in four women require repeat surgeries within five years due to problems with their breast implants,(vi) and according to the manufacturers themselves, nearly half of cancer patients require re- operation within three years.(vii) Finally, women should keep in mind that the surgeon who performed the original implantation is not always the best choice for removing an implant. Explantation can be a very complicated procedure, especially if the implant has broken. For more information on implant removal, visit http://www.explantation.com. What Women Need to Know About Breast Implants and Health Insurance Many women do not know that most insurance companies do not cover the costs of complications associated with breast implants. In fact, some companies refuse to insure women with breast implants at all, or may refuse to cover breast-related problems, regardless of their health.(viii) Since even the manufacturers make clear that they should be replaced every ten years, this adds up to a lifetime of repeat surgeries paid for out-of- pocket, at about $10,000 per surgery. Although a plastic surgeon might guarantee the replacement of a leaking or defective implant, this does not include the costs of anesthesia, medication, or the hospital room -- which can total in the thousands. In addition, if a woman suffers from a long-term illness she will need to pay for a lifetime of medical care. What Women Need to Know about Breast Implants, Breast Cancer, and Mammography Breast implants increase the difficulty of both taking and reading mammograms. The hard pressure applied to the breast during mammography can cause an implant to leak or rupture. In addition, breast implants may interfere with the detection of breast cancer. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), mammograms missed 55% of breast cancers in women with breast implants, compared to 33% in women without implants.(ix) In addition, reconstruction patients have higher complication rates from their breast implants than their augmentation counterparts. Women who receive breast implants after a mastectomy are twice as likely to require additional surgery within three years than women who receive breast implants for cosmetic purposes.(x) Breast reconstruction patients may also be at higher risk for other illnesses, but unfortunately, the long-term risks are still unknown. Many Plastic Surgery Procedures and Devices Are Insufficiently Tested for Safety As in the case of breast implants, many plastic surgery devices and procedures are " grandfathered " in, or used in " off-label " (non- approved) ways. For example, silicone breast implants have never been approved by the FDA, and saline breast implants were only just approved in 2000. The over 2.8 million people receiving facial injections annually may not be aware that Botox has only been approved for one specific use, and that other popular facial fillers contain things such as cadaver tissue, plexiglass, and Gore-Tex that have never been deemed safe for facial reconstruction.(xi) This is just the tip of the iceberg. (i) American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. ASAPS 2003 Statistics on Cosmetic Surgery. 2003.; American Society of Plastic Surgeons. 2003 Reconstructive Surgery Trends. 2003. (ii) Kaufman M, " Silicone gel implants still banned; FDA questions long- term safety. " The Washington Post, 9 January 2004. (iii) Brinton et al. Cancer risk at sites other than the breast following augmentation mammoplasty. ls of Epidemiology, 2001; 11: 248-56. (iv) Brown et al. Silicone gel breast implant rupture, extracapsular silicone, and health status in a population of women. Journal of Rheumatology, 2001; 28: 996-1003. (v) Marotta et al. J Biomed Mater Res. op. cit. (vi) . Complications leading to surgery after breast implantation. New England Journal of Medicine, 1997; 336 (10): 677- 82. (vii) Zuckerman D, Santoro E, Hudak N. Silicone Breast Implants: Illnesses and Complications, The Latest Research from Inamed's Core Study. National Center for Policy Research for Women & Families. Washington: DC; 2003. (viii) Mentor Corporation. Saline-Filled Breast Implant Surgery: Making an Informed Decision. 2002. (ix) King W, " Implants may skew mammograms, new study says they make breast cancer harder to detect. " The Seattle Times, 28 January 2004. (x) Zuckerman D, Santoro E, Hudak N. Silicone Breast Implants: Illnesses and Complications, The Latest Research from Inamed's Core Study. National Center for Policy Research for Women & Families. Washington: DC; 2003. (xi) American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. ASAPS 2003 Statistics on Cosmetic Surgery. 2003; American Society of Plastic Surgeons. SOURCE Command Trust Network Web Site: http://www.dcsettlement.com http://www.explantation.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 4, 2004 Report Share Posted June 4, 2004 One thing that has not been made public is the fact that women who have any problems with the identity of Dow implants, ie., if they say silastic type or silastic gel implants instead of Dow Silastic or Silastic I, Silastic II, etc., women have 90 days from the effective date June 1) to submit a request to Dow to accept them as Dow implants. If that does not happen within the 90 days, they may well be locked out. Lynda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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