From Relief to Outrage, Women React

Marie Walsh of Laguna Hills said she screamed in disgust when her attorney called with the news that Dow Corning Corp. and lawyers for women with silicone breast implants had struck a tentative deal: each of nearly 170,000 women who sued the firm would receive an average of $31,000.

“I’d rather walk away with nothing than acquiesce to their gift of pennies,” said the 52-year-old Walsh, who blames silicone implants for a mastectomy and an assortment of ailments she now suffers. “That offer is an insult.”

Josey Vanderpas of Torrance had a different response.

“Probably the most comforting thing is that some women will be able to have closure on this issue,” said Vanderpas, who blames ruptured implants for her pain and debilitating flu-like symptoms.

Across the nation Wednesday, news of the proposed $3.2-billion settlement deal revived memories of pain and suffering from women with silicone breast implants, triggering reaction ranging from relief to outrage.

Thousands of California women who had silicone implants for medical or cosmetic reasons could be affected by the proposed deal. In one San Diego courtroom alone, about 4,000 cases are pending against Dow Corning.

The plaintiffs’ mixed reactions offer a glimpse of the battles that lie ahead as lawyers prepare to confront their clients with only two choices: Accept the small settlement or continue to fight in court on their own.

Gillian Kavanagh, 61, of Sacramento, said she has already told her attorneys that she wants to have her case go before a jury.

Kavanagh blames Dow Corning for the pain she has suffered since two silicone implants ruptured several years ago. The ruptures triggered autoimmune illness, she said, which now requires her to visit five doctors each month. She says she spends about $50 a month on medication.

“I’ve suffered too much,” said Kavanagh, who runs her own sales and marketing business. “There are days when I can’t walk or hold a pen, or even open a bottle or a jar. It’s been a miserable existence.”

When Kavanagh sued Dow Corning six years ago, she said she believed “a couple of mil” would be fair compensation for her pain and suffering.

Other women who sued the company and some attorneys say plaintiffs like Kavanagh are being unrealistic.

Sibyl Goldrich of Beverly Hills said the proposed deal is the best solution--under the circumstances.

“There comes a time when you have to put an issue to rest,” Goldrich said.

Goldrich, 59, a cancer survivor who had a double mastectomy in 1983 and had four sets of implants before having them removed in 1984, “blew the whistle” on silicone implants in a 1988 article in Ms. magazine and later that year co-founded a support group for women with implants, the Command Trust Network.

“There isn’t enough money in the world to cover what any woman has gone through since breast implants were put on the market 35 years ago,” she said.

Roman Silberfeld, a lawyer whose Century City firm represents about 500 women involved in the settlement, said that to say each plaintiff would receive an average of $31,000 is misleading. Women will receive a wide range of payments depending on the severity of their illnesses, he said.

“The dollar ranges will be from relatively modest sums to, I hope, significant sums of money.,” Silberfeld said. “This settlement comes three years and almost two months after the filing of bankruptcy by Dow Corning. That delay has caused significant harm to the victims of breast implants. I think it’s a good thing--and it’s too long in coming.”

He said he is encouraged that the deal “preserves the right of any woman to have access to the court system and access to justice--if that’s her choice.”

Elizabeth J. Cabraser, a San Francisco plaintiff’s attorney who helped to negotiate the proposed deal, said she expects many women to be outraged by the proposed offer.

“This is a compromise plan, but we feel it’s in the best interest of women with breast implants to have a plan they can vote on this year rather than sometime in the 21st century,” said Cabraser, whose law firm represents about 1,000 women suing Dow Corning.

James Capretz, a Newport Beach attorney, said he believes many of his 1,000 clients will vote to settle their cases against Dow rather than fight in court.

“Many women would operate on the bird-in-hand theory because they are worn out after years of hoping for some justice,” Capretz said. “They’re going to be seeking closure.”

But Walsh and other holdouts said there’s more at stake than a fistful of dollars.

For years, officials of Dow Corning have vigorously denied that leaky silicone implants caused the women’s ailments.

Walsh, who had silicone implants in 1968 to enhance an undeveloped left breast, said many women want “the truth to come out, not just money.”

“Do you realize how much we’ve been mocked for this?” she asked. “No one has wanted to admit there was a real problem. A lot of women have been mimicked as wanting to be sex objects. It certainly wasn’t my purpose.”

Even Vanderpas, who supports the proposed deal, acknowledged that women who believe their silicone implants caused their illnesses were dismissed as “hysterical” or “psychotic” by their doctors.

“Whenever we mentioned a breast implant, their sympathetic attitude changed to a defensive one,” Vanderpas said.

But fighting Dow Corning in court--and winning--would be the ultimate victory, said Walsh, who plans to pursue her case against the company.

She said she is hopeful that new scientific studies will prove that silicone leakage caused their ailments.

“Ten years from now we’ll all be validated,” she said.