Dr. Letter to Marcia Angell - 1998

[Guest guest]

Thanks Lea,

Subject: Dr. Letter to Marcia Angell

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 (posted on

alt.support.breast-implant by Shirley Goodner ... God

bless you Shirley ... we sure miss you and your

talents!)

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.

Posted by Shirley Goodner

The Networker