Breast Implant Recipients Hold Graphic Protest

About 75 women who had silicone gel breast implants staged a graphic demonstration on the steps of the federal courthouse in Los Angeles on Wednesday, sharing personal stories of the implants they say have ruined their lives and calling for the punishment of their main manufacturer, Dow Corning.

Waving placards with garish pictures of women’s mutilated bodies that said, “Body by God, Breast by Dow” or “Dow Shalt Not Kill,” the women complained that the company used them as “lab rats” rather than conducting the proper research before selling the implants, and then filed for bankruptcy protection in May to avoid paying billions of dollars to victims of the implants in a court-approved settlement.

“We want Dow to take responsibility for our pain. They need to pay for the harm they’ve done,” said Melody Mello, 39, who limped through the rally on a cane, an implant in a plastic baggy pinned to her chest.

“I’ll never be the same,” Mello added, showing a scrapbook of snapshots, X-rays and medical records that chronicle her illnesses since her implants were removed in 1992--a decade after they were implanted. “No amount of money is going to make it right.”

Wednesday’s rally kicked off a week of activism by implant recipients nationwide leading up to the Aug. 30 deadline for the implant manufacturers and the women’s lawyers to finalize a settlement agreement in a massive class-action lawsuit.

Dow and several other companies--Baxter International, Bristol-Myers Squibb and 3M --agreed last year to pay $4.2 billion to the women, but U.S. District Judge Samuel Pointer said that was not enough and ordered the parties to continue negotiations.

With 96,000 women so far filing claims, each would get less than 5% of what they were promised if the pot of available money remains at $4.2 billion, said Margaret Branch, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys. To accommodate all the claims would require $20 billion, she said.

“The reality is, we’re never going to [get that]. Our goal is to try to convince the defendants that they should pay as much as possible,” she said. “But there’s no guarantee that there will be any kind of deal reached at all, at this point.”

The Midland, Mich.-based Dow filed for Chapter 11 in part because the prospect of continuing litigation, on top of its $2-billion share of the settlement, was overwhelming, the company said.

The bankruptcy process “will provide funds, where they’re proven to be appropriate, to women in the future,” Dow spokesman Michael Jackson said Wednesday. “You can’t do that if you’re broke.”

At the rally there were women in wheelchairs, women on crutches, women with Ace bandages wrapped around sore legs, and women with braces on their wrists. Many spoke of their sagas in broken voices, their words disjointed because of neurological disorders.

Cristy Warshaw of Costa Mesa carried a failed implant she said had been removed from Mello’s body, showing how the gooey silicone stuck to her rubber gloves, a plastic bag, anything it touched.

Judy Toth of Temecula brought her two sons, who she said suffered side effects from being nursed while their mother had implants: 8-year-old Ronnie wore a T-shirt that said, “Silicone Hurt Me,” while his 5-year-old brother, Kyle, had “Dow Lab Rat” on the back.

“None of us want to be here. None of us want to know that the implants are filled with toxins. None of us want to know that it’ll be with us for the rest of our lives,” Becky Highstreet said. “We know that, somehow, [Dow] can come up with the money to help with our illnesses, with our inability to work, with our inability to drive, our inability to lead any kind of lives.”

Most of the women said their main goal is to get the medical community and the manufacturers to acknowledge the problems caused by leaky or ruptured implants, ranging from chronic fatigue to low-grade fever, arthritis and migraines. But they also want to be repaid for their medical expenses--and suffering.

“We want treatment,” said Paula Gregoire of Orange, who had three sets of implants over 27 years. “We want the lies to be stopped. We want our rightful day in court, and we want the money that was promised to us.

“We know that we’ll never be well,” Gregoire added, “but we want them to admit their [responsibility].”

Dow’s Jackson, however, cited medical studies that show no links between the implants and the illnesses the women say they have.

“We’re sorry that they are ill, and really mean that . . . [but] we are not responsible for their illnesses,” he said. “Any product anybody puts in their body, there’s always some degree of risk.”