Re: Stories That Must Be Told - 2000

[Guest guest]

Thank you Honey, I know not what I send you, but thank you for posting

these. I have many, many more. We just got in and I have to go to bed...I'm

wiped out. They never want to do anything that I suggest, they see me as a

problem.!!

Love you so....Lea

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~```````````

Comments on " Storm in a D-Cup " Sent to TLC

>>

>>

>> From: Lea

>>

>> From: " Lea " devans@...

>>

>> " Micheline B. Lambert " delphine1939@...

>>

>>

>> ilena@...

>>

>> Sent: Sunday, November 05, 2000 2:44 PM

>>

>> PLEASE POST

>>

>> Dear Ilena:

>>

>> I watched this program with Lea last night. In

>> short, it pissed me off! Particularly that smug

>> Angell! I've sent the following email to TLC to let

>> them know what I think. I don't care what they do

>> with it, but I would like everybody in the group to

>> have an opportunity to read it. As the husband of a

>> victim, it's the least I can do.

>>

>> Fondly

>>

>>

>>

>> ---------------------------------------------

>>

>>

>> Dear TLC:

>>

>> I would like to comment on a program aired by your

>> channel last night. In many respects, and despite

>> some exposure given to those doctors, support group

>> leaders and victims who are working on behalf of the

>> sick women, Storm in a D-Cup was almost a showcase

>> for breast implants! If the uncaring breast implant

>> manufacturers who make these deadly devices and the

>> greedy plastic surgeons who are so eager to put them

>> in didn't pay for the program, they should have! The

>> entire depiction of the breast implant issue in the

>> program raised many questions for me as to just how

>> fair and just how accurate your producers have been

>> in their reporting.

>>

>> First, the title of the program was not only

>> childish and a weak attempt to be thousands of women

>> worldwide, to say nothing of the slapstick

>> interludes that punctuated the program. There's

>> nothing light-hearted about the consequences of

>> breast implants! You wouldn't have presented a

>> comedic turn in a program on AIDS, why would you

>> feel that it was all right to do so with breast

>> implants? It would suggest that you are as biased

>> and uncaring as the uncompromising implant

>> supporters you presented in the program.

>>

>> Second, Dr. Brody, your plastic surgeon, is a

>> notorious naysayer when it comes to breast implant

>> problems and is in utter denial as to the effects of

>> silicone on human physiology. He avoided, of course,

>> any mention of rupture rates. If asked, he would

>> have offered that...oh...perhaps as many as 5-7%

>> rupture. He knows that it is at least 70%! But what

>> does he care, because of his performance on your

>> program, another generation of young women will

>> happily but unknowingly jeopardize their health in

>> his and other equally dismissive plastic surgeons'

>> hands. You couldn't have picked a better plastic

>> surgeon to present the view that thousands and

>> thousands of women are wrong. You should ask

>> scientists about the science of breast implants, not

>> plastic surgeons whose yachts and BMWs depend on

>> their continuing use. Ask a chemist what happens to

>> free-flowing silicone in the body, not a

>> scalpel-wielding technician. And, next time you

>> speak to Dr. Brody, with what he really knows about

>> breast implants, be sure to ask him--hypothetically,

>> and just out of curiosity--if he would approve of

>> his own daughter being implanted.

>>

>> Third, Dr. Angell, your presumed polymath on

>> anything and everything to do with breast implants,

>> is another vexatious performer choice. Incidentally,

>> she is a pathologist by training, which would

>> suggest to me that she knows more about the dead

>> than the living. With her customary fixed smile, Dr.

>> Angell droned on about how the Hopkins case fuelled

>> a feeding frenzy of opportunistic women and their

>> hungry lawyers who, encouraged by extensive media

>> hype, ended up exploiting the breast implant " scare "

>> for all it was worth. Did she ever consider that all

>> these women were telling the truth and that they

>> deserved the same compensation as Hopkins? Never,

>> not for a second. No, using her clout as the editor

>> of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Angell

>> embarked on her own " opportunistic " venture,

>> " exploiting " her peculiarly advantageous editorial

>> position to publish a book (Science on Trial: The

>> Clash of Medical Evidence and the Law in the Breast

>> Implant Case) on breast implants that, in what to my

>> mind was a colossal conflict of interest, married

>> her own pointedly anti-feminine views to those of

>> the fanatical " junk science " proponents from the

>> lunatic fringe of America's mainstream broadcasting

>> corporations. For this, she was revered by her

>> accomplices. Dr. Angell has, however, feet of clay.

>> As the editor of one of America's most prestigious

>> medical journals, she should have maintained a

>> strictly neutral stance, remaining, if not

>> completely impartial, in at least a pretence of

>> disinterestedness. As it is, she has degraded

>> herself into a mere lackey of the manufacturers and

>> the plastic surgeons. Incidentally, ABC's

>> Regush, a journalist who has written extensively and

>> sincerely about the horrors of silicone, challenged

>> Dr. Angell and Kolata, another " scoop " -driven

>> journalist at The New York Times, to a public debate

>> on breast implants. They refused to meet with him.

>> So much for their courage of conviction!

>>

>> Dr. Angell waxed on in your program about the

>> so-called " exoneration " of breast implants by recent

>> studies carried out at some of America's finest

>> medical research institutions. She failed to

>> mention, of course, that the majority--if not

>> all--these studies were bought and paid for by the

>> manufacturers. She failed to mention, of course,

>> that those same studies were flawed. She failed to

>> mention, of course, that even these studies did not

>> approve implants without qualification and declared

>> that further research had to be carried out. She

>> failed to mention, of course, that researchers who

>> are working to vindicate the women's claims are

>> slowly but surely being silenced by university

>> administrations that, in turn, are being intimidated

>> by the manufacturers, who threaten to cut off the

>> millions of funding handed out to universities each

>> year. She failed to mention, of course, that there

>> is a particularly rich medical literature, going

>> back more than fifty years, of peer-reviewed

>> articles of studies that support categorically the

>> claim that silicone has deadly physiological

>> consequences when inserted into the human body. She

>> failed to mention, of course, that her " exonerating "

>> studies were all pumped out in the last five years.

>> Fifty years versus five years! Have you ever seen

>> such a clear case of damage control on the part of

>> the manufacturers? Dr. Angell knew all these things,

>> or should have known, but decided to stay with the

>> " party line " anyway. If I were the breast implant

>> manufacturers, I would pay her handsomely for her

>> performance on your program. With the disingenuous

>> Dr. Angell there to front for them, why would they

>> go to the expense of paying expensive

>> public-relations firms to promote their lies and

>> disinformation.

>>

>> I have watched my wife suffer for over twenty years

>> from silicone poisoning. And my wife's complaints

>> and symptoms were all in evidence years before there

>> was any " feeding frenzy " and " media hype " too. As a

>> support group leader here in Canada, she knows that

>> Dr. Brody and Dr. Angell couldn't be more wrong in

>> their views on breast implants. Unfortunately, their

>> biases will prevent them from ever understanding the

>> truth!

>>

>> You might want to read my wife's story at

>> www.info-implants.com/ALB/001.html

>>

>> Sincerely

>>

>>

>>

>> 2715-124 Street

>>

>> Edmonton, AB

>>

>> Canada T6J 4T2

>>

>>

>>

>> Poor Dr. Dowden's Problems

>>

>>

>>

>> V. Dowden, M.D., C.M., F.A.C.S.

>>

>> From: " Lea " devans@...

>>

>> " ilena rose " ilena@...

>>

>> Sent: Sunday, November 05, 2000 10:32 PM

>>

>> I'm on a roll today. If you can get this piece into

>> Dowden's face, please do so.

>>

>> --------------------------------------------

>>

>> PLEASE POST

>>

>> Dear Ilena:

>>

>> I can't believe that Dr. Dowden can quote Mentor and

>> McGhan statistics without gagging. But then, being a

>> plastic surgeon, he has a reality problem anyway

>> when it comes to any kind of breast implant. For

>> this pretentious tripe--aggressive one moment,

>> fawning and vacillating the next--he should get lots

>> of M & Mc freebies to put into any unsuspecting

>> young woman he is able to con that these things are

>> safe.

>>

>> The FDA is counting on him, and many others like

>> him, to tell prospective clients the truth about the

>> numerous potential risks and about what happens to

>> an implant after it's been in the body for awhile.

>> Do you think that for one second he's going to be

>> completely up front. Not a chance! Dr. Dowden has

>> been looking at implants for 22 years, and he has

>> never " seen a case of fungus or bacteria in an

>> implant " ! Who is he kidding? What he is admitting to

>> is that he probably wouldn't know fungus and

>> bacteria if they bit him. It takes a trained

>> biochemist to detect what is there, because it often

>> isn't staring you in the face.

>>

>> I really take exception to plastic surgeons who pass

>> themselves of as research scientists, when in

>> reality they are practitioners of surgical

>> procedures...no more and no less. Any training Dr.

>> Dowden had in biochemistry he has forgotten long

>> ago. His left-handed comment about the " laboratory

>> in Canada " is both dismissive and obsequious. But he

>> is correct in saying that Pierre Blais possesses a

>> good deal of personal honesty and integrity, even if

>> he says it quite disingenuously. I know Dr. Blais,

>> and I can attest to these attributes of his. It's

>> because of the work of scientists such as Dr. Blais

>> that we are able to portray breast implants for the

>> deadly devices they are. If it were left to plastic

>> surgeons to question them, well....

>>

>> Poor Dr. Dowden. He is really annoyed that we won't

>> let this implant thing go. I mean, he is just trying

>> to make a living off these young women,

>> and...well...he's just giving them something they

>> want, isn't he? You know, I really feel for this

>> wretched plastic surgeon. I mean his Mercedes is

>> probably a year old now, and it really should be

>> changed; and what about the mortgage, promised

>> himself that it would be gone by the time he was

>> fifty-five; and what about the country club fees! I

>> really feel for him...about as much as I would for a

>> concentration camp guard who had no inmates left to

>> beat up!

>>

>> Well, all I can say to this fatuous plastic surgeon

>> is that he is going to be annoyed for a long time

>> and will just have to get used to it. Because my

>> wife and all the women like her are not going to

>> back away to please him or anybody else. If

>> anything, he is counterproductive because he incites

>> further effort on the part of the sick women and

>> those working on their behalves. In that respect, we

>> are thankful for this feckless diatribe.

>>

>> If Dr. Dowden were painfully honest with himself, he

>> would acknowledge that his comments are fuelled by

>> nothing more than his anger at seeing the steadily

>> growing potential for a severely dented income over

>> the next while. Good. It's high time that he and his

>> kind paid. Dr. Dowden is quite obviously arrogant,

>> is pointedly greedy, is probably rich, and is

>> definitely a fool. The combination is deadly!

>>

>>

>>

>>

>

>

>

> Opinions expressed are NOT meant to take the place of advice given by

> licensed health care professionals. Consult your physician or licensed

> health care professional before commencing any medical treatment.

>

> " Do not let either the medical authorities or the politicians mislead you.

> Find out what the facts are, and make your own decisions about how to live

> a happy life and how to work for a better world. " - Linus ing,

> two-time Nobel Prize Winner (1954, Chemistry; 1963, Peace)

>

>