Letter to Dr. Devil from Dr. 1998

[Guest guest]

VIA Ilena's Board....I NEVER tire of reading this letter, no matter how many times it is posted. I saved it early on in this issue, and occasionally I go back and read through files saved, and when I see this one I can't resist reading it again. Dr. Devil sure has re-postured herself in the industry for sure. Sue

http://www.info-implants.com/document2.html

Dr. 's Letter to Marcia Angell

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 18:04:19 -0800 (PST)

Dr. is the inventor of the saline implant.

February 22, 1998

Marcia Angell, M.D. Editor-In-Chief

New England Journal of Medicine

10 Shattuck Street

Boston, MA 02115-6094

Dear Dr. Angell;

You first drew my attention with an editorial "Breast Implants-Protection

or Paternalism?" It appeared in Volume 326, Number 25, published on June

18, 1992 in the New England Journal of Medicine. You based your comments

on an article by Jack C. Fisher "The Silicone Controversy-When will

Science Prevail?" and an article by Hans Berkel, "Breast Augmentation: A

Risk Factor for Breast Cancer?"

Jack C. Fisher, former head of the Department of Plastic and

Reconstructive Surgery at the University of California in San Diego

managed to publish his unscientific and totally erroneous comments in the

NEJM with your endorsement. In a deposition Dunleavy [NY attorney]

immortalized Fisher's ignorance on the subject. As to Berkel he was fired

within less than a year from his position as the board's research

director.

You quote an ASPRS (American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive

Surgeons) statistic and qualify it as "The best information we have are

polls indicating that more than 90 percent of the women with breast

implants are satisfied with the results." You totally ignored the fact

that: less than 500 of the 100,000 women receiving a questionnaire

actually answered.

Since 1992 you have played the role of a world-renowned expert on the

subject of silicone gel-filled breast implants. Together with Fisher you

have popularized terms such as "junk science" and "junk scientists." You

have publicly accused plaintiff's expert witnesses of being "prostitutes."

What would you call defense expert witnesses Dr. Warren Blackburn, a

toxico-immunologist, hired for $750,000, Dr. Rosenberg, a

neuro-toxicologist being paid $500,000 and Dr. Bruce Kelman, another

toxico-immunologist, receiving $300,000 for services rendered in the case

of Mahlum versus Dow Chemical Corporation?

My concern for women with silicone gel-filled breast implants started in

1966 when during an explantation of an intact silicone gel-filled breast

implant, covered with seeping liquid silicone, I asked myself: * Where

does the liquid silicone go in a woman with silicone gel-filled implants?

* What does the liquid silicone do when it gets there?

* What can we as Plastic Surgeons do to remove it, should it prove to be

detrimental to their health?

I have received no remuneration for neither my research nor for warning

my colleagues and the manufacturers worldwide as well as the FDA. I wrote

and self-published my book, "Silicone-Gate, or The Scandal Behind Breast

Implants" together with my wife without an financial assistance or

encouragement from attorneys.

Defense attorneys have deposed me during more than 120 hours. When

presiding over a Daubert hearing in New York, Judge Weinstein approved my

testimony as an expert witness and found it to be "devastating to the

defense."

Would you still call me a prostitute?

Do you have the courage to come forward with all your second-hand

knowledge and testify on behalf of the manufacturers? Are you willing to

sign an affidavit under oath stating that as the editor-in-chief of the

New England Journal of Medicine you have never had any personal or

financial interest in authors submitting a scientific paper to you for

publication? Can you tell us who reviewed the above mentioned articles and

would you explain to us how the peer reviewers of such a prestigious

medical Journal missed gross errors in Fisher's article that any second

year chemistry student could have identified?

The second time your name drew my attention was your editorial, "Losing

Weight-An Ill-Fated New Year's Resolution." You have now become the

self-made expert on obesity! Dr. Everett Koop, the former Surgeon General,

JoAnn E. Manson, M.D., Ph.D. of Harvard Medical School as well as Theodore

B. Van Itallie, Professor Emeritus of Medicine at Columbia University

state that "the editorial is at odds with the totality of scientific

evidence concerning the health risks of obesity." Apparently they don't

think you have any background in obesity research.

Do you have any such background in liquid silicone?

I am sending you a signed copy of my book for basic education. I hope

that even you could one day become a scientifically minded editor who

would avoid politics, which in my opinion is the cancer of society.

Will you stop calling us prostitutes? There is an old America saying:

"IT TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE."

Sincerely,

Henry , M.D.