Death from Silicone Breast Implants

[Guest guest]

A copy of this will be found in the File section. -

Eeken is doing an outstanding job of gathering

implant information!

Rogene

Note: forwarded message attached.

For your information.

Silicone Breast Implants

By F. Eeken bc. (reply, comment, info. Eeken_04@... )

a non-professional investigative writer: just a concerned citizen.

Europe, The Netherlands, 11 january 2005

===========================B

( Source)

The Networker

January / February 1998

United Silicone Support Network International

Official Journal - International Circulation

The Networker

- P.O. Box 683, Mena, AR 71953

- Fax: (501) 394-3999

- ISSN 1097-5691

- Shirley Goodner: Editor / Publisher

- International Distribution: Scotland, England, France Australia, Holland, Canada, New Zealand, Belgium, Switzerland ) - OUR PURPOSE - To assist men, women, and children with silicone and saline implants. To educate all people on the facts concerning these implantable medical devices. To help all people become informed. To give survivors and their families support, and to help women empower themselves in their own healing process.

Lynn Malone says her sister Died from Breast Implants

Letter to Health Minister Great Britain

I was asked to share the following letter with our readers, so that others might know the pain and tragedy of families who lose loved ones from Human Adjuvant Disease (HAD). Lynn says she hopes telling her sister's story will save someone else from the horror of this terrible illness.

28 January 1998

Dear Baroness Jay [Health Minister GB]

Re - Ann Clifford deceased 25 February 1997

I'm writing to you about my sister, Ann, who died almost a year ago. The reason I'm writing is because the review over silicone breast implants is almost over and I hope for a ban in memory of my sister and all the other women who have died horrific deaths as she did, and to stop this human tragedy from continuing. Let me tell you Ann's story.

Ann had silicone breast implants 12 years ago, as her breasts had diminished after childbirth and she was very self consious about this. So much so that her GP (general practitioner?), seeing her self esteem dwindle and recognizing that she was becoming depressed, referred her to a reputable hospital to have the implants inserted on the NHS. She was delighted with the results. This did not last long. Almost immedicatley they went rock hard and painful. Ann could only sleep on her back, her rib cage became painful and she would complain of aching all over. It took 10 years of illness and the break up of her marriage before doctors listened to her and admitted her into a hospital to remove the ruptured silicone implants and replace them with soybean oil implants. Again, she and the rest of her family who loved her dearly were delighted. This was when the nightmare would really begin.

About two or three months after the new implants were put in, Ann had been complaining to me and my other sister that she was feeling tired and listless all the time and that her joints were aching and her back was sore. Ann was not a person who normally complained, but even so, we failed to notice how ill she was: as at this time our mother was dying and shortly before we had lost our father. We just did not notice. After our mother 's death I started to really notice how bad Ann was. She and I went to her GP adn begged him to send her to check to see if her implants were leaking. His answer was to put her on antidepressants and consequently strike her from his list for being a bothersome patient. We found her another doctors. By now she had breathing difficulties and short term memory problems. This doctor sent Ann for an MRI scan to check for leakage. I remember helping her on with her clothes and thinking how weak and helpless she looked. She would hate this as she was a very independent person and disliked sympathy. We never received the results of the MRI as Ann phoned me a short time later to say she was coughing up blood. Het doctor sent an ambulance to speed her to the hospital. She lasted exactly a week.

I watched my sister try to claw herself away from death for three days as every one of her organs filled up with blood clots and failed. Before, while suffering the first of three heart attacks, she begged my husband to strangle her and end her suffering. I cried and begged with her not to leave us as she was all we had left. But she said life just wasn't that precious, she had fought enough. The nursing staff then put her onto a life support machine and induced her into a coma. The doctor said her mind was traumatized by what was happening to her body. She died soon after with her three children and two sisters weeping around her bed. When the tubes were taken away and her body was tidied up, my 49-year old previously beautiful looking sister looked like an old, old woman, whose face was ravaged by the suffering she had indured. This will live with me until my dying day.

The young doctor who was to sign the death certificate said he had never experienced anything like this and was at a loss as to what to put as cause of death (every test that had been performed on Ann had come back negative). He eventually put as cause of death 'congestive heart failure'. I remember at one point asking, could it be her implants and being looked at disdainfully and told NO ! There was no postmortem, she was quietly buried. Please do not let any other family suffer the pain and trauma that we have. Please, I beg you ban silicone breast implants.

Yours sincerely,

Lynn Malone

Glasgow, Scotland

The Story of Ann Clifford

The risks of breast implants & silicone poisoning

Doctor: "It's almost guaranteed that women get silicone poisoning from breast implants"

The Herald, saturday May, 31, 1997

Health Minister Baroness Jay has instucted Chief Medical Officer, Sir Calman, to launch an inquiry. She said she was particularly concerned because women were claiming they were not given proper advice (informed consent) before having surgery. The problem was brought to the attention of the government by "Watchdog", a television show similar to "60 minuts", "20/20", "Dateline" or "Primetime" in the USA. The show conducted a survey of women and found that 73% had not been properly informed of the risk associated with implants.

Dr. Shanklin appeared on the program along with women who had received breast implants. Lynn Malone, Ann's sister, has has just received her sister's medical records and says she is more convinced than ever that her sister was a victim of silicone poisoning. Looking back on the events of her sister's death Lynn is astonished that no postmortem (autopsy) was performed on her sister, especially since the doctor attending her was at a loss as to what to write down as the cause of death. He, along with others, was mystified by what happened, as all the tests had come back negative.

Although silicone implants have been banned in the U.S.A., Canada, Japan, Italy, France and Norway, other countries, including the UK still make them available. Not only are they available, but in many cases the National Health Service will pay for them. Also, in many foreign countries a woman is able to walk in off the street and have plastic surgery much like she would have her hair done. There are few who govern the practice closely and even fewer who help women once they have been injured. Doctor Shanklin has agreed to study Ann's case. In an unprecedented step, Lynn was granted legal aid to pursue the case and she immediatley signed papers to obtain the release of Ann's records. Dr. Shanklin visited Glasgow in December 1997 and spoke with Lynn and agreed to help in her sisters case. Shanklin said: "If she died from ruptured implants and the medical records are complete, I should be able to tell straight away". "I have been studying silicone diseases for 12 years and it's almost guaranteed that women get silicone poisoning from breast implants". "Britain is 10 years behind America and I think it's because most breast implants operations are carried out privately in the Uk". Dr. Shanklin has met with Baroness Jay and the Medical Devices agency in the UK in an attempt to have silicone implants banned in Britain.

Ms. Malone said Dr. Shanklin was the only medical expert she trust and she is so grateful for his help. "It is too late to help Ann, but it might help other women and Ann would have wanted that," she added. , Lynn's lawyer siad, "The legal test would be whether the health board knew, or should have made an effort to find out about the dangers." Lynn has not ruled out the possibility of having her sister's body exhumed if necessary, to do the autopsy that should have taken place at the time of her death.

NOTE -

Widespread silicone sickness is very real

in women with past and continuing exposure to silicone breast implants

Article by Dr. R. Shanklin

http://womnhlth.home.mindspring.com/studies/shankln1.html

Test predicts "Illness linked to Silicone Implants"

Dr. Garry, Tulane University

Dr. Garry was also summoned to the UK in December to present his findings before the Medical Devices agency and the Review Board. Dr. Garry also called for an immediate halt to the sale of breast implants. Dr. Garry of Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana and his colleagues have discovered what they believe is a simple blood test which identifies the antibodies that make some women ill. In their study they have found that these women have antibodies to manmade polymers in their blood. The APAs were present in nearly 70% of the women with severe symptoms, 44% of those with moderate symptoms and virtually none in those who were well. They are convinced that this is will identify women who are genetically susceptible or have become hyper-sensitized to silicone. Even more interesting is that the team of experts found the same antibodies in 85% of the children whose bodies had rejected silicone tubes inserted to relieve pressure from water on the brain.

Yet, when they looked at patienst who had silicone injected into the eye - a part of the body where the immune system does not function - they found no sign of the APAs. Dr. Garry said that in his opinion a 1/4 to a 1/3 of women react badly to the silicone breast implants. This would mean that thousands of women will ne, or are facing problems with the implants. Dr. Garry said. "Some people are able to tolerate these devices very well whereas others become very ill", "We now want to find out what these antibodies may be doing, and try to figure out how to prevent that so patienst who have been exposed can be helped." The team at Tulane discovered the antibodies by accident when testing blood samples, but added that this test could now help women find out whether their illness was linked to their silicone implants, and to screen out those who already have been sensitized to silicone from the environment (about 8%). This group of women should not have breast implants.

Letter from Husband of another Silicone Victim

Over the past few weeks I have read with great interest in the columns of both The Mail and The Mail on Sunday about the controversy on breast implants. You probably wonder what possible could be a man's interest in this subject. To explain, during the mid 1970s my wife had breast implants carried out on the NHS. The operation was preformed at Mount Vernon Hospital, Middlesex. Initially, my wife was very pleased with the visual results, but within a very short period of time they became very hard and painful. She was taken back into Mount Vernon and under anesthetic the implants were put under great pressure and purposefully burst... During the following years my wife became very ill with an ever increasing list of symptoms, including jount pains, insomnia, sicknesses, to name but a few. Very soon walking became too difficult to do. She even became unable to pick up het grandchildren which was distressing enough. Eventually, after a few years the pain was so great that the implants were removed at M.V., but alas, the damage had been done.

Sadly, after years of pain and suffering my wife had a serious brain hemorrhage in June 1993, which was inoperable. She lost the use of the left side of her body, plus memory loss. She fought hard to reeducated the remainder of her brain but sadly on 9th of May, 1994, she had a further hemorrhage which this time proved fatal. Although I was given no explanation for her demise I am convinced she died due to damage caused by silicone poison at the age of 57. Although I have no proof as to the cause. Sometime ago I watched and Oprah Winfrey programme on this subject and she reported that silicone poison could cause hemorrhaging of the heart and other main organs of the body. I took the time to write to her programme, but had no reply. All the money in the world cannot return my beloved wife to me and our families. But, I thought maybe my feelable attempt through this letter to you may help save some other person and their families from suffering. My wife will not have died in vain. These implants must be banned. Thank you for taking the time to read my letter.

Mr. M.J. Poulton

Medical & Legal News

The Lancet

FDA "Implant rupture much higher than previously suspected"

A study published in The Lancet quotes Dr. Lori Brown of the FDA saying: "There is emerging consensus that both the incidence and prevalence of breastimplant rupture are much higher than previously suspected". Dr. Brown and two colleagues studied the existing published evidence of silicone implants and found the risk of rupture increase with age. They found the rupture rates were much higher than the ,02% to 1,1% reported to manufacturers. One study they reviewed showed that 63,6% of implants which and been in place for between 1 and 25 years were leaking. according to Dr. Brown ruptures can have many causes; falls, accidents, compression during mammography, and gunshur wounds. However, she points out that "most implants ruptures have no obvious traumatic cause". Silicone leaking from implants has been found in women's lymph nodes, chest, ribs, upper arms, elbow, hands and liver.

British Medical Journal

Biased corporate Silicone research

The BMJ released a 5-year old study in their february 7th edition, causing a quick response by doctors, and women who felt the move was an attempt to discredit the recent study published in The Lancet. This study: Risk of connective tissue disease and related disorders among women with breast implants: a nationwide retrospective cohort study in Sweden, with lead author Olof Nyren. It is interesting to note that Hans-Olov Adami one of the 9 authors listed, is on the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine. Not the first time we have seen their "hand" in negative reports against women with implants.

The study involved 7,442 women with implants for cosmetic reasons or for reconstruction after breast cancer surgery and 3,353 women with breast reduction surgery. A long article accompanied the study which agreed with it. The article was written by Cyrus , Professor of rheumatology and Elaine Dennison, Wellcome training research fellow at MRC Environment Epidemiology Unit, University of Southhampton. Just in case that was not enough the letters to the BMJ editor carried a letter from a group of plastic and reconstructive surgeons, headed by the infamous Dr. T. Sharpe of Scotland.

This letter had as its focus the woman and her child in Great Britain who was recently granted legal aid because of second generation illness caused from breast implants. The doctors listed a number of medications, drugs and other medical devices containing silicone, which they say do not cause illness and neither does breast implants. However, they (nor any other) doctor or medical professional has come forward with ANY proof that these products are SAFE. When asked, they have never produced any medical studies or pre-market approvals for these products being tested for use in the human body. I for one would like to review the literature showing where silicone is safe in ANY device, food or cosmetic.

Command Trust Network responded to the BMJ study saying: "the study had limited power to detect the rare disease most often associated with implants, like scleroderma. Only women hospitalized for classical connective tissue disease were evaluated, thus women seen on an oupatient basis would be overlooked". "This is still one more study driven by the manufacturers, in hopes of absolving their wretched silicone breast implants", says Dr. Robbert Garry of Tulane University. "Studies must include atypical disease, otherwise the conclusions are moot," he adds. The study was funded by Dow Corning. "This is typical of biased corporate research," said Sybil Godrich. "Dow funds studies to look only at classical disease, and not the bigger problem of atypical disease. This is part of Dow's corporate funding campaign to create results that do not reflect the true medical problems from silicone" she said.

Medical Abstracts: Rupture & Capsule Contracture

Amsterdam, Holland Study

Exudation of Silicone through the envelope of gel-filled breast protheses: an in vitro study.

- Bergman, B. & Van der Ende, A.E.

- Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Slotervaart Ziekenhuis, Amsterdam

- Journal of Plastic Surgery, 1979

" Because of the increasing problems of capsule formation around implanted breast protheses it was thought to be of interest to measure the degree of diffusion of silicone gel through the envelope of various readily available prostheses in vitro, especially since, while manufacturers do give detailed information of the technical properties of their product, there is no mention of any leakage phenomenon"

Studies of silicone breast implant and saline implant

1989 - 1999

http://womnhlth.home.mindspring.com/studies.htm

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve & db=PubMed & list_uids=9024074 & dopt=Abstract

Does infection play a role in breast capsular contracture?

Plast Reconstr Surg. 1981 Jul; 68(1):34-42, Shah Z, Lehman JA Jr, Tan J.

......The present study seems to indicate that subclinical infection with Staphylococcus epidermidis may be one of the causes of capsular contracture around breast implants.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve & db=PubMed & list_uids=7243998 & dopt=Abstract

Fibrous Capsular Contracture around Breast Implants:

The Role of Subclinical Infection

Infections in Surgery, June 1985

Boyd R. Burkhardt, MD, FACS, Tucson Medical Center

.......Infections around implanted foreign bodies are notoriously difficult to cure with systemic antibiotics. Although many plastic surgeoens do use them empirically tp prevent capsular contracture, no study has been done to determine their effectiveness. SUMMARY: Fibrous capsular contracture around breast implants continues to be a complication of significant prevalence. Despite investigative efforts, its etiology, prevention, and resolution remain unclear. The results of this study, while incomplete at present, suggests that infection is a significant etiological factor.

Editor's Note -

My consensus of all this information is that infection plays a big part in capsule contracture, and that we were used for an ongoing experiment while doctors tried to find the cause of contracture and its relationship to other aspects of breast implants. Treatment ranged from compression (mild word for the treatment actually used), injection of many forms of drugs and antibiotics, to different forms of surgical release. One thing I can say is that this is the one part of our illness that cannot be denied as it is obvious, even to the doctors. But, in their usual superior fashion they looked for ways to surpress the SYMPTOMS, rather than find a cure for the PROBLEM. Did it never occur to anyone of them to call for a halt to implantation while they looked for CAUSES to the problems ?

The most oustanding piece of information about all these studies is actually a total lack of information. NEVER - NOT IN ONE STUDY - WAS THE WOMAN CONSIDERED AS A HUMAN BEING, or for that matter even mentioned. In every case THEY TALK AS IF WE WER SO MANY RABBITS OR MICE AND TO BE TREATED AS SUCH !

==========================E

My NOTE -

The death of famous dutch actrice Sylvia Millecam

Sylvia Millecam was a personal friend of healing-medium Jomanda, who treated Sylvia's illness. Regular medicine diagnosed consequential 'cancer' but Sylvia, lateron in her healing-process, explicitly rejected regular medicine. Jomanda 'saw' a "number 20". It appeared that Sylvia had had silicone breasts implanted 20 years ago. Jomanda found that an "infection", which may had lateron caused cancer, was the CAUSE of her illness, and "the implants had to go out". After Sylvia's death, in 2001, Jomanda, has been investigated by the dutch Health-Inspection (IGZ) under leaderschip of Inspector Herre Kingma (who presently has silently left the Healthcare-Inspection). "Jomanda was interfering with regular medicine with the consequence: death of a patient", "Sylvia would have lived longer if she had continued with regular medicine and treatment". The result was, based on the concluding nation-misleading-IGZ-report (17 february 2004), the information to our Public-Prosecution-Ministry (7 october 2004) to 'so-called' criminally prosecute Jomanda: 'Guilty of murder on her friend Sylvia' ? The Public-Prosecution-Ministry concluded, almost a year later, that prosecution was justified, as dutch media reported (22 july 2005).

The reason why ?

Jomanda: "If all that (silicone etc.) mess was taken out, a healingprocess would have started. Sylvia wanted that, but one of the doctors in the hospital said: "NO, first chemo-therapy, that is obligated". Sylvia then thought: Just as like with my father surely ?! With him they also thought that he had cancer, but that seemed later an infection. And that killed him. Because they did not want to operate Sylvia, she ran away angry. So, who was in neglect ? The regular doctors have witholded an operation from Sylvia. They put her in her bare shirt." (Source - Dutch newspaper, Algemeen Dagblad, 24 december 2004, Jomanda and the death of Sylvia, by Allard Besse a.besse@... )Typ je SMS sneller binnen MSN Messenger klik hier

[Guest guest]

I'm putting his work on my website when I get the time ...

Bless him ... he contacted our wonderful and dedicated support

leader for 13 years in Holland, Marlou ... who is now very very ill.

I spoke at length with her yesterday. Her photo is on my webpage

surrounded by many sets of yucky explants!

One Saturday nite many years ago ... she and I spent the evening

looking at about 50 sets of explants she has ... and discussing the

women and their stories.

I am so grateful for for his research right now ... and for

the first time ... we'll have info on the web in Dutch ...

Marlou put out a great magazine monthly for years ... " De Stille

Kracht " (Quiet Strength) but is too ill now to do it anymore.

Thanks for archiving this here Rogene ... with the PS's selling over

300,000 new sets a year now ... we know we'll have lots of ill women

for many many years to come trying to figure it all out.

Love to all from Ilena

www.BreastImplantAwareness.org

>

> A copy of this will be found in the File section. -

>

> Eeken is doing an outstanding job of gathering

> implant information!

>

> Rogene

>

>

>

>

> Note: forwarded message attached.

>