Fw: The legacy of breast implants remains unresolved ~ 3/1/02

[Guest guest]

----- Original Message -----

From: " ilena rose " <ilena@...>

<Recipient List Suppressed:;>

Sent: Saturday, March 02, 2002 2:03 AM

Subject: The legacy of breast implants remains unresolved ~ 3/1/02

> ~~~ thanx much to Robb for forwarding this ...

>

> Bravo to & Dr. Kolb for their comments ...

> and may God help Stuart Bondurant put together the

> pieces of this tragic puzzle. Ilena ~~~

>

> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

>

> http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/news/nation/2771215.htm

>

> Posted on Fri, Mar. 01, 2002

> The legacy of breast implants remains unresolved

> BY ERIC FRAZIER

> Knight Ridder Newspapers

>

>

> CHARLOTTE, N.C. - KRT NEWSFEATURES

>

> (KRT) - When Casselberry hears people dismissing the possible

> dangers of breast implants, she thrusts both hands out before her, palms

> down.

>

> " See, " she says, pointing out red lesions on the backs of her hands. " I

> have to live with this. "

>

> She blames the lesions on a silicone gel breast implant that ruptured in

> 1989, spilling silicone particles that migrate throughout her body.

>

> But while Casselberry and thousands of other women struggle with illnesses

> they blame on their implants, the public seems to have moved on. The

safety

> of silicone gel implants, once a major public health issue, has faded from

> the spotlight.

>

> Plastic surgeons are doing a booming business in the saline-filled

implants

> that replaced them. That resurgence has left Casselberry feeling

frustrated

> and forgotten, even as she and thousands of other women continue fighting

> on with a 1993 class-action suit against implant maker Dow Corning.

>

> " The women involved continue to have a sense of urgency about this, " said

> Casselberry, a Charlotte resident and licensed practical nurse. " But that

> doesn't seem to be shared by the court system. "

>

> ---

>

> The U.S. Food and Drug Administration pulled silicone-filled implants off

> the general market amid controversy in 1992.Women claimed the implants,

> inserted under the breast tissue or behind the pectoral muscles, were

> rupturing and spilling silicone inside their bodies. They said they were

> coming down with serious illnesses, including rheumatoid arthritis and

> fibromyalgia, a disease involving pain in the muscles, ligaments and

> tendons.

>

> After the FDA took the silicone gel implants off the general market,

> saline-filled ones became popular. Nationally, more than 187,000 breast

> augmentation surgeries were performed in 2000 - five times as many as

> doctors did in 1992.

>

> " Saline is safe, " said Carole Rowell, administrative manager for Charlotte

> Plastic Surgery. " More people are saying this is what I want to do. "

>

> That's a big change from the early 1990s, when controversy raged over the

> silicone-filled implants. Charlotte Plastic Surgery in 1991 reacted to a

> breast implant story airing on " Face to Face with Connie Chung " by sending

> a detailed letter to patients charging the report was " biased, inaccurate

> and inflammatory. "

>

> Dr. Bullard, a Charlotte plastic surgeon who did more than 100

> implant surgeries a year in the early 1990s, said he frequently used to

get

> letters from implant patients directing him to send their medical records

> to lawyers.

>

> " That never happens anymore, " he said.

>

> ---

>

> Women get breast implants for a variety of reasons, from simply changing

> their appearance to correcting a difference in breast size.

>

> Casselberry, 55, is a married mother of two who teaches medical classes at

> tone College of Business in the University City area. She believes

> women who don't ask questions about the safety of saline implants are

> making a mistake. She said that when she had her silicone gel implants

> inserted in 1979, those were said to be safe, too.

>

> She said she had them put in not for simple vanity, but as a response to

> years of jokes from family and friends about her small breasts. She

thought

> they would make her feel better about herself.

>

> She did - for a while.

>

> An implant ruptured in 1989. She had both replaced.

>

> She began experiencing chronic fatigue and body pain so severe that

> sometimes it hurt just to lie down on her mattress.

>

> Because her problems mirrored those being reported by thousands of other

> women with silicone gel implants, she joined the class-action lawsuit in

> 1993.

>

> But sentiment turned against the women in the middle to late 1990s, when

> high-profile scientific panels said they couldn't prove women with

silicone

> gel implants had higher rates of serious disease than women generally did.

>

> Dr. Stuart Bondurant, dean emeritus of the UNC School of Medicine in

Chapel

> Hill, led one prestigious panel appointed by Congress. In its 1999 report,

> Bondurant's committee concluded implants do appear to cause less-serious

> problems such as swelling, infections in the surrounding tissue and

> accumulations of blood.

>

> But it found the evidence linking the implants to serious illness

> " insufficient or flawed. "

>

> Bondurant, in a recent interview, said he sympathized with women like

> Casselberry, but that science hasn't proven their claims.

>

> " These women do have sicknesses. Many of them even die of them, " he said.

> " The tragedy is that this was blamed on the implants when that wasn't the

> cause. "

>

> Such talk from doctors infuriates Casselberry.

>

> " Quite frankly, I don't care what they say. Any of them, " she said. " I

know

> what I'm going through. "

>

> She suspects the silicone spills precipitate a new syndrome inside women's

> bodies, but most researchers haven't identified it because they have been

> looking for links to already-known diseases.

>

> That view is seconded by Dr. Kolb, an Atlanta plastic surgeon and

> former breast implant patient who is also part of the class-action

lawsuit.

>

> " It devastates people's lives, " she said of the illnesses. But " the

general

> public doesn't care. "

>

> ---

>

> In 1999, most women in the class-action suit against Dow Corning accepted

a

> settlement plan that would pay $3.2 billion to resolve claims by more than

> 170,000 litigants. This followed a 1995 action when Dow Corning filed for

> Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

>

> But the settlement has remained tied up in bankruptcy court since then.

>

> The company hopes to settle the matter later this year and emerge from

> bankruptcy after the settlement.

>

> " We don't feel (the implants) are responsible for any of these alleged

> illnesses, " said Wiggins, a spokesman for the Michigan-based

> corporation. But " this litigation has gone on forever. For the company and

> for the claimants, we've agreed to disagree and settle the claims. "

>

> Casselberry waits, and wonders what to do next.

>

> She could get her implants removed and have saline-filled ones inserted,

> but she doesn't trust the silicone shell that encases the saline implants.

> She could undergo reconstructive surgeries using tissue from other parts

of

> her body, but that would be a long, painful process.

>

> Or she could simply do without implants, but she fears that would leave

her

> disfigured.

>

> She realizes some people might think she shouldn't have gotten implants in

> the first place.

>

> But once a person decides to do it, she said, the doctors and

manufacturers

> owe the patient straight information about risks.

>

> " We were told this was safe, that this would last all your life, " she

said.

> " Neither of those proved to be true. "

>

>