Guest guest Posted July 26, 2002 Report Share Posted July 26, 2002 ----- Original Message ----- From: " Kathi " <pureheart@...> Sent: Friday, July 26, 2002 1:11 PM Subject: Silicone Injections > From: > " Rogene " <saxony01@...> > To: > " Kathi " <pureheart@...> > > > > > Newsweek > > http://www.msnbc.com/news/576924.asp > > > THE SILICONE - which was injected into her lips and the tiny > lines > that were beginning to radiate around her mouth - created a hard ball on > her > upper lip. Within a few months, the entire lip area had ballooned to > five > times its normal size, so that it protruded past the end of her nose. > " I looked like a duck from the side - people thought I had been > severely punched, " she said. > The quest for beauty has turned ugly for many in South Florida. > Thousands of women and men are buying into promises of fuller lips, > smoother > skin and made-to-order measurements by untrained, unlicensed > practitioners > wielding syringes of liquid silicone, state health officials report. > And the practice - which has been linked to severe disfigurement > and > even death - appears to be spreading to other areas of the country, from > > South Carolina to Southern California. > For fees ranging from $100 to $500, cosmetologists, travelling > South > American pseudo-doctors and even house cleaners illegally inject liquid > silicone - an oily fluid similar to the gel used inside silicone breast > implants - into customers' wrinkles, lips, breasts, buttocks, legs and > hips. > The immediate effects can be pleasing - smoother thighs, tauter > cheeks, sexier pouts - but the long-term results can be far from > beautiful. > > " Imagine the biblical description of leprosy, " said Dr. > Rosenberg, a plastic surgeon in Delray Beach, Fla., who has seen about > 20 > silicone-injected patients in the last two years. " Their faces look like > > they are melting. They have boils and abscesses. " > In at least one case, the consequences of the practice have gone > beyond disfigurement. In March, Vera Lawrence, a 53-year-old Miami > secretary > and mother of two, died after she received injections of silicone into > her > buttocks and hips, allegedly from a house cleaner. The medical examiner > recorded the cause of death as silicone embolism, caused when the thick > fluid traveled to one of her lungs. This was the first such case > recorded in > Florida but doctors say silicone injections have likely resulted in > other > deaths by blocking blood vessels or leading to other damage. > Dr. no Busso, a dermatologist in Coconut Grove, Fla., and > clinical instructor of dermatology at the University of Miami, also > blames > the injections for severe bruising, recurring infections, nerve damage, > chronic inflammation and painful tumor-like lumps. " It is crazy to do > this, > it's an extremely unsafe procedure, " he said. > > 'OPERATION HOT LIPS' > A year and a half ago, the Florida Health Department's Office of > Unlicensed Activity created a task force dubbed " Operation Hot Lips " to > take > on the underground cosmetic injection industry. The investigation has > yielded 14 arrests, according to chief investigator Enrique . > " We've just begun to scratch the surface, " he said. " It's an > epidemic > in Florida. " > Most recently, Ruiz, who police suspect of injecting > silicone > into customers from her home near Miami for years, was arrested last > month > for practicing medicine without a license after a WTVJ/NBC 6 undercover > investigative report tipped off the authorities. The case is currently > awaiting trial. Calls to her lawyer were not returned. > A woman who asked that she not be identified said she was left > > with lumps under her eyes and distorted lips after she received a series > of > injections from Ruiz. > " She said it was the latest thing from Europe, that not a lot of > people knew about it and it was being tested in the United States, " the > woman recalled of Ruiz's sales pitch. > The woman, a former model, says she feels so self-conscious about > her > " disfigurement " that she seldom leaves her house. She receives regular > cortisone injections to reduce the swelling but doctors refuse to remove > the > silicone for fear of causing further damage. > " I just want my face back, " she said. > says the practice is so widespread in South Florida > because it > 's the gateway to South America, where silicone injections are widely > used. > The practice first gained a foothold in Florida among the foreign-born > population, but it quickly crossed social, economic and racial lines. > " I've seen it in the poorest neighborhoods and in affluent Palm > Beach, " said. > The practice has gained a following among AIDS patients who use > it to > plump up faces that have grown gaunt from anti-retroviral drugs - a side > > effect of the drug regimen is redistribution of body fat that can result > in > sunken cheeks. Transsexuals are also major consumers, using large > volumes of > it to create feminine curves. > > FROM FLORIDA TO CALIFORNIA > The practice is not restricted to Florida. The house cleaner > arrested > in the death of Lawrence is suspected of running a silicone injection > service for transsexuals in Greenville, S.C. > Dr. Wolf, a Miami plastic surgeon, says he has treated > patients who say they were injected in California, New York and New > Jersey. > " Florida is where this has been exposed because it's so rampant, " > he > said. " This is just the tip of the iceberg - within a year we're gonna > find > it all over the country. " > > THE LURE OF A QUICK FIX > says clients are seduced by cut-rate prices and the > promise of > permanency. The effects of approved cosmetic injectables like collagen > are > short-lived because they are natural substances that the body absorbs > after > a few months. > Koebel, who was injected by a Brazilian cosmetologist at the > woman's > apartment, said for $300 it sounded like a good deal: " That's less than > collagen and you have to do that every three months, " she recalled > thinking. > But Dr. Malcolm , president of the American Society for > Aesthetic > Plastic Surgery and clinical assistant professor of plastic surgery at > the > University of California, Irvine, warns women: " You just might get what > you > wish for. It'll be permanent but then when there are problems you won't > be > able to get rid of it. " > " People want a cheap, quick fix and don't even think about the > consequences, " Wolf said. > The trouble, Busso says, is that no one can predict who will > have > a bad reaction. He estimates the complication rate at somewhere around > 10 > percent - " outrageous " for a cosmetic procedure. > Unpredictable effects may take years to appear, or can arise > almost > immediately. The area of the body where the silicone is injected can > swell > to grotesque proportions. " I've seen lips that look like hot dogs > sitting on > a face, " Busso said. > In other cases, the silicone can migrate, causing reactions in > other > parts of the body. Just before talking with MSNBC, for example, Busso > consulted with a patient whose silicone had migrated from her cheeks > down to > her jaw, where it formed an unsightly lump. > But the result most dreaded by plastic surgeons is the chronic > inflammatory reaction, in which the body's immune system recognizes the > silicone as a foreign body and mounts an all-out war against it. Large > pockets of scar tissue can form around the silicone, creating tumor-like > > bulges that can continue to grow larger and larger, Busso said. > The reaction is similar to that experienced by some women whose > silicone gel-filled breast implants leaked or ruptured - migration of > the > gel with lumps of scar tissue forming around it, according to the Food > and > Drug Administration. > With liquid silicone, the body's craze to get rid of the > substance > can trigger sudden swelling, pain, redness and fever, Busso said. " Not > long > ago, I had a patient who had to be admitted to a hospital eight years > after > being injected. Her face suddenly blew up like a balloon, turned red > like a > tomato and she had a fever of 103. She had to get [intravenous] > antibiotics > and be put on steroids, " he recalled. > > SILICONE SOIREES > The underground silicone network operates on word of mouth, > > said. Both Koebel and the unnamed woman were referred for silicone > injections by aestheticians at beauty salons. > Clients go to back-room clinics, private homes and hotel rooms > for > the procedure. Some practitioners even host " silicone parties. " > " Some are real high class, offering Cristal [champagne], " > said. > The champagne may be expensive, but the hygiene is Third World. > said the seizure of one practitioner's bag revealed dog hair, > candy > remnants and used needles. He suspects some of the practitioners are > even > reusing needles - adding AIDS and hepatitis to the list of possible > complications of silicone injections. > The silicone's purity is doubtful. Often called " biopolymer " in > the > underground industry, patients often don't even know what substance they > are > having injected, noted. > He says some of it is medical silicone brought in from outside of > the > country, illegally; but often it's industrial-grade silicone - the type > used > in paints and lacquers or to coat automobile parts. It may not even be > silicone at all - Wolf says he has seen a patient with injected paraffin > > that left her face " hard as a rock. " > Doctors say contaminants in non-medical silicone can cause > potentially deadly reactions and horrific recurring infections. > Rosenberg > notes the industrial silicone may also contain carcinogenic materials. > " People are playing Russian Roulette, " said. > > HISTORY OF CONTROVERSY > Cosmetic silicone injections have a controversial past. After > World > War II, the shots became popular among Japanese women who would use > liquid > silicone to augment their breasts. In the 1960s, the practice became > popular > among strippers in the United States. > The results were disastrous: hardened, lumpy painful breasts, > with > some women requiring mastectomies. > Liquid silicone was never actually approved for any medical use > during that time, but the FDA overlooked the practice until the early > 1990s > when it issued a ban on injecting the substance. > Silicone gel breast implants also were banned for cosmetic use in > > 1992, when their makers could not prove their safety to the FDA's > satisfaction. However, silicone implants remain an option in some > medical > cases - for breast reconstruction after a mastectomy, for example - and > for > women enrolled in clinical trials. > > But in 1994 a liquid silicone product was approved by the FDA > for > treating detached retinas. That opened an avenue for doctors to begin > using > liquid silicone for cosmetic injections again: Once a drug or device is > approved by the FDA, doctors can use it as they see fit. Currently, > there > are two such products on the market for eye surgery. > Dr. Orentreich, a dermatologist at the Orentreich Medical > Group > in New York City - and son of Dr. Norman Orentreich, who helped pioneer > cosmetic injections of silicone - currently uses the approved > ophthalmologic > silicone as a wrinkle, scar and lip filler. > However, the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery > opposes > cosmetic silicone injections because they are not FDA-approved, > according to > , the society's president. > Wayne , president of , the developer of > Silikon > 1000, one of the silicone products approved for eye surgery, said his > company does not want physicians using their product for off-label > purposes. > But the company will begin FDA-approved clinical trials at the > end of > this month on a new formulation designed specifically for cosmetic > injections into facial wrinkles. > expressed concern that the illegal activities in Florida > may > spark unfounded fears about legitimate medical uses of silicone. > " Silicone > is a very misunderstood substance - you can't just fill a syringe and > inject > it. The results can be quite disastrous if it's not done properly, but > labeling silicone as poison is ridiculous. " > He points out that silicone has been used successfully for years > in > many medical devices, from the coating on needles that allows them to > slide > through the skin, to artificial joints, catheters, shunts and heart > valves > made of solid silicone rubber. > > PICKING UP THE PIECES > After the charlatans skip town, Florida's plastic surgeons and > dermatologists are often left to pick up the pieces. " Someone who is > doing > this in the back of a beauty parlor or in a hotel room is not likely to > be > there for you when you have a problem, " said Wolf, adding that he sees > several victims of the fad every week. > Removing the silicone is nearly impossible and often involves > carving > out huge areas of skin and tissue. " You have to treat it like a cancer - > > excise and reconstruct, " Rosenberg said. > Wolf recently performed Koebel's eighth reconstructive surgery. > He is > unable to remove the silicone entirely because it has grown into > tissues, > but Koebel says she's grateful she can at least come out of hiding now. > She > returns for steroid injections every several months to keep down the > swelling - something she will have to do for the rest of her life. > Ironically, she notes, the procedure she opted for to save money > has > ended up costing her tens of thousands of dollars in reconstructive > surgery > and lost earnings. > But she says the worst part of the ordeal is that she doesn't > really > have sympathy of her family and friends. > " People say, 'Well, she was vain, she got what she deserved,' " > she > said. " But I don't think anyone deserves this. " > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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