Silicone Gel Breast Implant Litigation
Channel 5 News
January 29, 1993
10:00 P.M.
00:23 - 03:11
Joan Esposito: In the first lawsuit of its kind, a Chicago attorney is suing the makers of silicone breast implants claiming they cause illness in the off-spring of the women who used them.
Mother: It makes me feel a little guilty and very angry, very angry.
J. Esposito: This mother of three who wishes to be anonymous believes her breast implants leaked silicone into the bodies of her last two daughters causing rashes, headaches, exemia and a learning disability. But she says she didn't make a connection until one of her daughters came down with tuberculosis.
Mother: Since I read an article that it's prevalent in people who have depressed immune systems and/or people who have been exposed to silicone dust, so that's really, when I got upset. Because I feel like now it's my fault.
J. Esposito:She believes the silicone invaded her daughters either in her womb or during breast feeding, and now she is one of ninety-three Chicago area women filing suit against the thirty-five manufacturers who made implant components.
Kenneth B. Moll: Every woman that has silicone gel breast implants in their body, every implant leaks or bleeds.
J. Esposito: Attorney Kenneth Moll filed the lawsuit. He shows how silicone can leak out of its shell without rupture and even leave a stain behind. All the women in his lawsuit suffer from the type of immune problems being associated with silicone. As of yet, however, there has been no scientific evidence that such silicone in a woman's body can cause harm in her children.
K. Moll: That doesn't alleviate the fact that this mother on a daily basis is in constant fear that something that she did that was so vain might have caused these reactions in her children.
J. Esposito: It was just a little over a year ago that federal officials severely restricted silicone breast implants saying that more studies are needed to judge their safety for women, but no studies have been done yet about effects on children.