Fw: Response to your comments in the Washington Post:

[Guest guest]

I hope this will help...love always....Lea

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Response to your comments in the Washington Post:

Dear Dr. Whalen:

Good morning from Canada! When I read some of your comments, I became very angry. I'm convinced that the decision that you made in 2003 was the right one, and I cannot understand what can have possibly influenced you to change your mind regarding these deadly devices? Have you done any research on silicone and what effect it has on the human body? My husband, who is a university history teacher, has helped to do research on these devices, and what we found was that silicone was never meant to be implanted into the human body. Our home is so full of well-documented, peer-reviewed articles on the dangers of silicone. Many doctors here have copies of my research, and they believe that breast implants should be banned. This is not sexist in our opinion; this is common sense.

I have been giving support to women for more than ten years, and all these women are sick from silicone or saline breast implants. The rupture rate is extremely high, and the disfigurement is heartbreaking. I know...because I am one of those women. Back in 1974, my OBGYN told me to have breast implants because they would protect me from cancer. I went along with his opinion, and this decision has taken me down a path of constant health problems.

The first set that I had were Dow Corning, and they ruptured within two years. I had many problems from the day that I was implanted, never once realizing that the implants were what were making me sick. In 1976, my plastic surgeon removed my Dow implants and implanted me with Bristol-Myers Squibb's thin-shelled silicone-gel breast implants. He left the old capsules and the Dacron patches in my body; really he should have cleaned me out before this surgery. After this surgery, many serious health problems began. My doctor did not know what was wrong with me, and he tried to treat the symptoms; however, my health was getting worse. I went down to 98 lbs., and he sent me to many specialists, who could not determine why I was so sick. The symptoms from silicone poisoning are so insidious that no doctor could have known that it was my breast implants that were causing all my health problems, even if they had known that I had these devices in my body. I never told anyone that I had breast implants for the eighteen years that I had them, because these devices are medical and at that time in my life I trusted all doctors. This made me part of the "silent epidemic." My trust is gone now because of the abuse that I have taken over the years both from the medical and the legal community.

Dr. Whalen, have you ever heard of silicone fluid-induced pulmonary embolisms? There are peer-reviewed articles on this phenomenon in the medical literature. I have had three pulmonary embolisms! One year ago, I almost died from the third one. These pulmonary embolisms are frequently appearing in women who have silicone devices implanted into their bodies, but are not typical of a person who has not had silicone. The doctors here at the University of Alberta now believe in me. They have put me on Coumadin for the rest of my life to protect me from any further pulmonary embolisms. My doctors are also treating me with massive doses of antibiotics and antifungal drugs to give me some quality of life. I have had an enlarged heart and asthma/chronic bronchitis, yet I have never smoked in my life! In the Harbut study, one that the IOM report was careful to avoid, they found that silicone does cause asthma. Why do I and many other women have MGUS and/or full-blown multiple myeloma, when the common denominator is that we have all had breast implants? Many women have died.

As an aside, I would like to comment on the prevailing public and medical community view that there is a certain kind of woman who has implants. A month ago, I asked the director of microbiology at the U of A if he would do platinum testing on me because there is a very high rate of platinum levels in the bodies of women who have had breast implants. He asked me if I knew that there is a very high incidence of lung cancer in women who have silicone implants, and that these women smoke and lead very risky lifestyles. The comments about the high incidence of lung cancer are true; however, his other comments were unfair. He did, however, agree to do the testing on me.

Dr. Whalen, my case is very well documented, and if you would like to see any of my medical files for research purposes I would provide you with them. Would you have the time to read my story, because I believe that it has saved many women's lives? My story is at http://www.humanticsfoundation.com/lea.html. It will continue as soon as my health improves.

Please search your conscience--as you did a year ago--and make the right decision for us...the women of the world.

Thank you for your time, with respect Lea

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