Re: Fw: Dr in North Carolina area ?

April 18, 2002

Wanda, Did you not read my post? I never suggested or anyone for that matter to go to a PS in NC (I don't know of any myself). I simply said that with regard to breast ULTRASOUND she's sure to get good help in the Raliegh/Durham area. Do you have something to report about the Department of Radiology to be less than up to par at UNCCH or Duke? Hmmm, if you do, I'd love to hear it.

Thank you for your info.

-Marie

April 18, 2002

See

comments below, by Dr. Stuart Bondurant, dean emeritus, UNC School of Medicine,

Chapel Hill, NC.

His

comments are a surgeons dream.

I

spoke with Dr. Bondurant by phone yesterday - three years since the

IOM report - he still has not changed his mind about the IOM panel's conclusions!

He wouldn't budge an inch.

I

have made several phone calls trying to find surgeon's that do en bloc

explants here in NC. So far, I haven't found anyone that I would

recommend. If anyone finds a good NC surgeon, please let me know.

A good friend of mine who cannot travel desperately needs an explant.

Thanks!

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, leads. 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."

Heer wrote:

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

From: Bojohns@...

idagirl@...Sent:

Tuesday, April 16, 2002 12:41 PMSubject: Re: Dr in North Carolina

area ?

Hi. Saw your

post.

Don't know of any in NC--if

you don't get responses you can start looking

by the website for the American

Society of Plastic and Reconstructive

Surgeons as they have a

Find a Doctor program. When you click on

a doctors name, you can

determine from their procedures whether they

remove implants.

To find out if they remove

"en bloc" you will have to call their offices

and mind you--many office

girls will say they do and you will find out otherwise

from the doctor. I

suspect the object is just to get you in the office so they

can sell you on removal

in any fashion--telling you en bloc isn't necessary.

Plastic surgeons are essentially

salespeople. So I'd get the girls' name and

tell her to ask the doctor

and call you back. Your friend not only wants someone

to do this "en bloc" she

wants someone who has done it frequently--and she wants

to see proof of that.

She can see files without

seeing names. (Their best excuse is that they can't divulge the privacy

of the files) This may take some aggressiveness

on the patient's part--but

it's time to start questioning these doctors--especially the

plastic surgeons who are

known to mislead and outright lie a lot. If you know any

physicians from any other

specialties, they will tell you that plastic surgeons

do not enjoy respect from

the rest of medicine--never have.

There is a site called explantation.com

with some doctors recommended--a lot depends on whether she is involved

in a suit, etc. You might visit it if you haven't already.

There is a Dr. Dowden in Ky or Tenn and someone in SC.

Write if you have questions,

OK?

Best wishes,

Bonnie (Bos@...)

April 18, 2002

Thank you for this post I feel that this group needs to he on track and that is recomending surgeons who do explant en bloc and good vertical lifts, Kolb, Huang and Feng are the ones who come to mind, they are not only good surgeons but they believe us that implants made us sick, this is most important and why I chose to moderate this site.