Breast implant class-action settlement approved by B.C. Supreme Court

[Guest guest]

http://news./news?tmpl=story & u=/cpress/20051005/ca_pr_on_he/breast_impl\

ant_lawsuit_2

Breast implant class-action settlement approved by

B.C. Supreme Court GREG JOYCE

Wed Oct 5, 5:15 PM ET

VANCOUVER (CP) - Settlement of a decade-old,

class-action lawsuit involving Canadian women who had

silicone gel breast implants means each woman could

receive as much as $5,000, a lawyer for the women said

Wednesday.

Klein said the out-of-court settlement was

approved by the B.C. Supreme Court and gives the

affected women until Feb. 1 to file a claim.

The settlement was made without any admission of

liability by the defendants: Bristol-Meyers Squibb

Co., Baxter Healthcare and 3M.

Under the settlement terms, the three defendants

agreed to pay between $2.5 million and $4.3 million

depending on how many women come forward with claims.

A spokesman for Bristol-Meyers, which had the largest

number of claimants in the settlement, was not

immediately available to comment.

The lawsuit covers women who resided anywhere in

Canada other than Ontario and Quebec on Feb. 14, 1997,

or were given the implants anywhere in the country

other than those two provinces.

The class-action was the first ever filed in British

Columbia and was filed the same day as legislation

allowing it took effect in August 1995, said Klein.

The class action was approved by the B.C. Supreme

Court and upheld by the B.C. Court of Appeal. The

Supreme Court of Canada declined to grant the

defendants leave to appeal the B.C. high court

decision.

During the lengthy battle, Klein said " the science on

the effects of silicone gel shifted and there's less

concern now about the silicone causing systemic health

problems. "

He said that shifted the " focus " of the lawsuit to

" local complications - the hardness, the scarring, the

ruptures caused by the implants. "

The settlement announced by the two sides compensates

women for the number of " implant surgeries, the number

of times they've had to have them taken out, ruptures

and local complications like hardening, scarring and

deformities, " said Klein.

He said many women have already received compensation

in the United States, Ontario and Quebec.

" At this point we think between 1,000 and 2,000 women

will come forward and receive compensation, " he said,

about half in British Columbia and the other half from

the rest of the country.

If 2,000 women come forward each would receive about

$2,000 compensation.

But Klein expects fewer women than that to make a

claim and he believes the average payment will be

between $4,000 and $5,000.

Last month, two manufacturers of the devices told an

expert scientific panel at a Health Canada public

forum in Ottawa that new-generation silicone-gel

breast implants are safe and should be approved for

widespread use in Canada.

Representatives from both Mentor Corp. and Inamed

Corp. said their new silicone implants are not only

safer (less likely to rupture or leak) than older

versions removed from the market in the early 1990s,

but they offer superior breast augmentation and

reconstruction options for women compared to approved

saline implants.

Silicone breast implants were pulled off the Canadian

market by manufacturers in 1992 - 30 years after they

were first approved - after Health Canada raised

concerns about their safety. The devices were also

removed from the U.S. market.

Breast implant manufacturer Dow Corning Corp. was

granted bankruptcy protection in 1995. The company

agreed to pay up to $2.35 billion US to settle claims

from more than 300,000 women - including Canadians -

who said their health had been harmed by the product.

Despite the ban, many Canadian women have had

breast-implant surgery under a special release

program, which is intended to give patients access to

non-approved products in cases of serious or

life-threatening illness.