Stories That Must Be Told - 2000

[Guest guest]

Thanks Lea!

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

> THIS WAS NEVER CONSIDERED:

>

>

> Stories That Must Be Told...

>

> Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 18:19:06 -0600

>

> From: " Lea " devans@...

>

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

>

>

> From: Lea

>

> fifth@...

>

> Sent: Friday, October 06, 2000 1:37 PM

>

> Subject: A Story that Must Be Told...

>

> THIS LETTER IS DIRECTED TO ANNA MARIA TREMONTI

>

> Dear :

>

> Good afternoon. I was so pleased to see that you

> have come to The Fifth Estate. I have never

> forgotten you since your Edmonton days. Do I have a

> story for you...and when you do the research you

> will agree too, I'm sure, that it has to be told.

>

> Have you read the book And the Band Played On? I

> have a similar story to tell, we could call it

> " Silicone/Saline Poisoning " or " Chemical AIDS " . I am

> a survivor of silicone breast implants. For years

> now, thousands of women right here in Canada have

> been injured and maimed by these deadly

> devices...some have died...worse, some have

> committed suicide. This has all been covered up.

> Health Canada will not admit that these devices

> cause the problems that we women know they do,

> perhaps because it would destroy our healthcare

> system to do so. Even though the government's own

> researchers told them that breast implants were

> dangerous back in the 1980s, Health Canada still

> ignored the problem...and got rid of its " problem "

> researchers.

>

> It's not just the health problems either. There's

> more. I have heard stories about " sweetheart " deals

> under the Mulroney administration, whereby Health

> Canada looked the other way while breast implants

> that had not been approved by the FDA were imported

> into Canada, by a Quebec importer in particular.

> There are stories about corrupt elected officials

> and money changing hands to ease the passage of

> these same breast implants into Canada.

> Significantly, I have also heard that the wives of

> former Prime Minister Mulroney and then Minister of

> Health Benoit Bouchard both have breast implants.

> But this is another story...should you wish to

> explore it.

>

> A recent RCMP criminal investigation into the

> federal government's role in this matter has

> reported that it has found no evidence of criminal

> activity on the part of Health Canada. My take is

> that the RCMP were not allowed to find anything

> criminal. This too is another story....

>

> As you can see, this entire matter has a number of

> story threads...all worth investigating. I have been

> campaigning against breast implants since 1993 in my

> role as a support group leader here in northern

> Alberta. My purpose in all this is twofold: to

> expose breast implants for the deadly devices that

> they are and to force the federal government to help

> not only the women who have been harmed by them but

> also the children of these women who have been

> severely damaged by free-flowing silicone crossing

> the placental barrier during pregnancy...to say

> nothing of the problems caused by implanted women

> breastfeeding their babies. Yet, as I write, Health

> Canada offers a downloadable brochure on its website

> that maintains, among other things, that it is quite

> all right to breast feed babies if you have

> implants. The truth is that all breast implants

> rupture at an alarmingly high rate. The free-flowing

> silicone that comes out of silicone gel-filled

> implants migrates to every organ in the body,

> including the brain, and causes havoc with the

> body's immune system.

>

> What I would ask of you is that you please read my

> story, which you will find at the following site:

> http://www.info-implants.com/ALB/001.html. I intend

> to continue my story as time goes on. My whole life

> has changed in the past few months, however, because

> I found a letter from a specialist I had been seeing

> that said that I am positive for monoclonal

> gammopathy of unknown significance (MGUS), a

> condition that can develop into full-blown multiple

> myeloma, a form of bone marrow cancer. All these

> years I have been warning the women in the group

> about MGUS and encouraging them to be tested for it.

> Now I find that I'm positive! The specialist who

> failed to tell me knew that I knew that there was a

> high incidence of multiple myeloma in women who had

> received silicone breast implants. I know of several

> women who are now positive. And this is just one of

> the consequences of silicone that I could tell you

> about.

>

> The horror stories that I have heard over the years

> would make a book. My husband of twenty years and I

> have done a great deal of exhaustive--and

> exhausting--research at the University of Alberta

> libraries. We cannot be fooled, because we have seen

> all the peer-reviewed scholarly medical articles

> that stretch back thirty years and more that

> catalogue the problems associated with putting

> silicone into women's bodies. It is no secret that

> the manufacturers of breast implants have spent

> millions of dollars over the last while on a

> well-orchestrated public relations propaganda

> campaign to cover up the truth. Both the Canadian

> medical profession and the Canadian media have

> allowed themselves to be deceived by this, and each

> in its own way is helping--knowingly or not--to

> promote the lie. Please come to our home, which is

> filled with research material, and see the evidence

> for yourself.

>

> My husband and I are currently preparing yet another

> letter to Minister of Health Allan Rock, in which I

> am going to demand a public enquiry into this

> serious cover-up, because so many families have been

> destroyed. When grandmothers', mothers', daughters'

> and grand-daughters' lives are damaged, it destroys

> the whole family.

>

> Most sincerely,

>

> Lea

>

> 2715-124 Street

>

> Edmonton, AB

>

> T6J 4T2

>

> TEL: (780) 434-2490

>

> FAX: (780) 430-0250

>

>

>

> Subject: 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!

>

>

>

>