Fw: Beauty & The Breast ... Canadian Radio Broadcast ... well worth a visit!

[Guest guest]

From: " Ilena Rose " <ilena@...>

" McKie " <davidmckie@...>

Sent: Monday, July 09, 2001 9:29 AM

Subject: Beauty & The Breast ... Canadian Radio Broadcast ... well worth a

visit!

Hi Group!

I've had bunches of questions on this ... about the Mentor ClassAction etc.

There is a wealth of info on Audio Clips at this site.

Thanks to all the women and doctors who worked so hard on this with

McKie and his staff who did a brilliant job!

Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!

http://cbc.ca/consumers/indepth/breast_implants/audiofeatures.html

Laliberte

Laliberte is a single parent who lives in Saskatoon with her

teenaged daughter. She receives disability support from Canada Pension.

Laliberte says she feels like a guinea pig. When she was 28 years old, she

had a double mastectomy on her doctor¼s recommendation because she was

getting lumps in her breasts. They were benign lumps but they worried her

each time they appeared. Laliberte feared the lumps might one day turn out

to be cancerous.

Eleven years and 17 operations later, Laliberte says she doesn¼t know any

other way but experimental to describe the medical treatment she has

received. Some of her story can be chalked up to bad surgery ã her first

surgeon slipped and made an extra cut in her breast cavity ã but for the

most part she believes the medical community and Health Canada has not

done enough to protect women like her from the problems of breast

implants.

Audio Clips: Laliberte #1 | Laliberte #2 | Laliberte #3

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Glenn Mc

Glenn Mc lives in suburban Vancouver with his two dogs, Brewster and

Corkey.

Mc believes he lost his wife, Ricki, to silicone poisoning. There is

no such medical term, but Mc believes that is what happened to a

woman who was once full of energy and who he was sure would outlive him.

Ricki¼s health rapidly went downhill and she became bedridden after her

silicone breast implants ruptured, spilling silicone into her body.

Glenn Mc is determined to prove his belief that silicone is to blame

for his wife¼s death. Ricki died in 1996 from lung failure. When she died

tissues were taken from major organs ãlung, liver, kidneys, brain ã and

the results of the tests on those tissues is soon to be published. Ricki

died with silicone in the tissues of her major organs.

Audio Clips: Glenn Mc #1 | Glenn Mc #2 | Glenn Mc #3

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kim Hoffman

Kim Hoffman, second from left, with husband, Steve, and children,

and . Hoffman is holding a poster of breast-cancer survivor Ann

Stansell. Stansell, who took this photo, has said surviving breast cancer

was easier than dealing with the health problems she says were caused by

her implants.

Kim Hoffman may be a determined person. But this woman from Missouri

doesn't regard herself as an activist. However, there's no doubt her

activities over the past few years have yielded some results. Based on

some of the information Hoffman gathered about Mentor, one of the two main

manufacturers of breast implants in North America that also exports its

products to Canada, the American Food and Drug Administration opened a

criminal investigation in 1998. The investigation continues to this day.

Hoffman's efforts have also helped convince congressmen and senators, from

both parties, to support a piece of legislation. If the Breast Implant

Research and Information Act becomes law, it would force the FDA to

complete its criminal investigation within 90 days. The bill also calls

for longer-term safety research on implants.

While there have been some minor victories in her struggle to raise

awareness about silicone-gel and saline implants, there have also been

painful setbacks. Indeed, her journey to a life of activism began when the

implants that were supposed to improve her appearance, ended up destroying

almost everything she worked for.

In this interview, Hoffman speaks with CBC reporter, McKie. Listen

to the interview

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Becky

Becky has spent the past ten years of her life living with implants,

devices she says have diminished the quality of her life. The mother of

four lives in rural Michigan on a farm. On good days, when her health

allows it, she'll tend to her horses, who she calls her " babies. " On bad

days, she is forced to do as little as possible. Becky has Multiple

Sclerosis, a condition she feels is linked to her first set of implants

she received ten years ago. In an effort to improve her appearance, Becky

ended up with silicone gel implants. Then five years later, when they

ruptured, her plastic surgeon convinced her to replace the silicone-gel

implants, which by then had been banned for general use due to safety

concerns, with saline implants made a company called Mentor. Fearing what

she would look like without any implants at all, Becky decided to give the

saline implants a try.

In the first of three excerpts of a conversation she had McKie,

Becky talks about why she decided to have the implants and her plastic

surgeon's assurance that the saline implants would work just fine.

Audio Clips: Becky #1 | Becky #2 | Becky #3

Ý

RADIO CLIPS OF THE FOLLOWING ...

* Class action suit against Health Canada: June 25, 2001

* " Silicone women " the forgotten victims: June 25, 2001

* FDA probes implant maker: June 26, 2001

* One woman's efforts to force an investigation: June 26, 2001

* Lawsuit alleges Mentor knew implants were faulty: June 27, 2001

* Lawsuit says faulty implant forced women to undergo multiple surgeries:

June 27, 2001

* Questions about how Health Canada continues to approve breast implants:

June 29, 2001