Silicone Gel Breast Implant Litigation
Channel 2 News
January 29, 1993
4:00 P.M.
12:18 - 14:50
Lester Holt: They wanted a fuller figure now their children are paying a horrible price and tonight they could be the latest victims of bad silicone breast implants. The claim is being made by women who got the implants and then became nursing moms. Now their babies are suffering from a variety of health problems and they think the implants are to blame. Channel 2's Adele Arakawa is here with more, Adele.
Adele Arakawa: Lester, ninety-three women have filed a law suit against the silicone breast implant makers saying they've suffered all kinds of health problems after receiving the implants. But now for the first time several women who became pregnant with the implants and nursed their babies claimed the leaking silicon has caused everything from rashes to learning disorders in their children.
Jane: There were times when I would be going from one doctor to the next trying to figure out what is wrong with me.
A. Arakawa: Jane, who wants her real identity hidden, now believes her silicon implants were the cause of her medical problems. She and nearly one hundred other women are suing the makers of the silicon implants, but what makes Jane's claims different is that she believes the silicon was passed on to her children.
Jane: I worry a lot about what I have down the road. Just with my health, and what my kids have to think about. You know, is something gonna show up in 15 years with one of my two children?
A. Arakawa: Five of the plaintiffs claim the silicone passed to their children caused allergies, rashes and welts, tuberculosis and learning disorders.
Kenneth B. Moll: The can of worm that we're opening up is that we're trying to show the public, the defendants that there are women out there that have breast fed and conceived children and are guilt ridden now that they did something that might have been so vain because such an injury to their children.
A. Arakawa: But some doctors say there just isn't, enough evidence to blame the implants.
Dr. Thomas Mustoe: (Northwestern Memorial Hospital) I just have to smile, there is just so little evidence, but it does to me seem like a pretty far out suggestion.
A. Arakawa: But try telling that to the women who have suffered health problems with no other obvious causes.
K. Moll: There's a lot of anger, there's extreme anger in these women and that is their driving force for wanting to do something about it.
Jane: Me, as well as gosh, how many million other women were made guinea pigs without knowing they were being guinie pigs or without giving consent to it, and I think that is unconscionable.
A. Arakawa: Now thirty-five silicone breast implant makers are named in the suit including Dow Chemical Company and Corning. It asks for an unspecified amount of money damages. As of this afternoon the implant manufactures have not responded to the charges.