The 22-year history of breast implant litigation provides us with a most important lesson. Specifically, scientific study must precede manufactures and marketing. Even if the scientific data is provided after the fact, it does not stop a legal disaster from unfolding. The lack of this data in the 1990s led to a 14-year ban on silicone gel implants, billions spent in two class performance suits, over 20,000 personel lawsuits, and the temporary collapse of an whole industry. The following attempts to summarize this story:
1977: A Houston attorney won the first breast implant lawsuit for a Cleveland woman who claimed her implants had caused pain and suffering. She received a 0,000 settlement from Dow Corning and the case received itsybitsy publicity.
Damage History
1980s: Raph Naders communal people study Group sent out warnings that silicone breast implants cause cancer.
1984: A California attorney won a case for Maria Stern who claimed that her autoimmune disease was caused by her breast implants. Evidence was introduced from Dow Cornings own internal documents that they had been aware of high rupture rates and gel bleed with the second-generation implants. Expert witnesses theorized the siliconeimmune link for the first time. The San Francisco court awarded 1,000 in compensatory damages and .5 million in punitive damages.
1990: A television program, Face to Face with Connie Chung aired, discussing the dangers of silicone gel-filled breast implants. communal concern mounted, and a Congressional hearing was held on the security of breast implants.
July, 1991: Dow Corning released 329 studies to the Fda. In a separate lawsuit against Baxter/Heyer-Schulte, an Alabama court awarded a .4 million settlement to Brenda Toole, who showed only introductory symptoms of systemic autoimmune disease, but had silicone in her lymph nodes. Expert witnesses stated that she was thus at increased risk of developing autoimmune disease.
December, 1991: Attorney Dan Bolton, who won the case for Maria Stern, won someone else case for Mariann Hopkins who claimed that her mixed connective tissue disease was associated to her ruptured silicone breast implants.
February, 1992: A class performance lawsuit was filed in Cincinnati by Stan Chesley. The hope was to compensate women at a faster rate than filing personel lawsuits. The Fda Panel recommended that the added use of silicone implants be itsybitsy for reconstruction only. The panel also finished that no causal link has yet been established between auto-immune disease and silicone breast implants.
March, 1992: Dow Corning, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Bioplasty all left the breast implant business. Dow Corning set up a fund for added study into the security of breast implants.
April, 1992: The Fda located a ban on the use of silicone breast implants surface of an Fda-approved study study. The only women allowed to receive implants were those undergoing breast reconstruction. All of the implant recipients must come to be part of a scientific protocol.
March, 1994: A class performance lawsuit was finalized by the manufacturers, including Dow Corning, Baxter, Bristol-Meyers Squibb/Mec, and 3M. At .4 billion, it was then the largest class performance lawsuit in history. Women would be allowed to drop out of the settlement if they choose. Companies could also opt out if too few women register claims.
June, 1994: Mayo Clinic epidemiologists published a record in the New England Journal of medicine which finds no increased risk of connective tissue disease in women with silicone breast implants.
1995: The American College of Rheumatology issued a statement that the evidence is compelling that implants do not cause systemic disease.
May, 1995: Dow Corning filed for lesson 11 Bankruptcy, with over 20,000 personel lawsuits pending. Over 410,000 have filed claims in the class performance settlement. The bankruptcy essentially halted all litigation.
November, 1995: A new global settlement was advanced without Dow Corning.
December, 1995: More than 20 scientific studies and abstracts have been published showing no causal connection between silicone implants and a variety of auto-immune diseases.
September, 1996: The California Court of Appeals upheld a decision dismissing Dow Corning from 1,800 lawsuits.
December, 1996: An Oregon Federal Judge ruled that plaintiffs lawyers cannot present evidence that silicone implants caused disease because it is scientifically invalid. Seventy claims were dismissed.
January, 1997: The American Academy of Neurology reviewed existing studies and reported that there is no link between silicone breast implants and neurological disease.
March, 1997: A Michigan Judge ruled that Dow Corning is not liable for hundreds of women in the state.
September, 1997: The Journal of the National Cancer manufacture published a present of scores of medical studies that concludes breast implants do not cause breast cancer. The researchers described the evidence for linking implants to any other disease as "borderline."
April, 1998: Two large scientific studies failed to show that silicone implants are associated to neurological disease.
December, 1998: After two years and 0,000, a panel of four independent experts appointed by Judge Sam C. Pointer, overseer of implant lawsuits in the Federal courts, finished that scientific evidence so far has failed to show that silicone breast implants cause disease.
June, 1999: The manufacture of medicine released a 400-page record prepared by an independent committee of 13 scientists. They finished that although silicone breast implants may be responsible for localized problems such as hardening or scarring of breast tissue, implants do not cause any major diseases such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis. The manufacture of medicine is part of the National Academy of Sciences, the nation's most prestigious scientific organization. Congress had asked the manufacture to set up the committee.
August, 2004: August of 2004 was the deadline for registering for the re-negotiated global settlement with Dow Corning, which they established after coming out of lesson 13 bankruptcy. By this time, most all personel lawsuits against Dow Corning had been thrown out or dropped. The breast implant litigation era ended with itsybitsy media fanfare.
November, 2006: The Fda lifted the ban on silicone gel filled implants, 14? years later. By now, silicone implants sold are fourth generation implants which are much improved over the second generation implants with the thin walls and high gel bleed that led to all the media attention. The added improved fifth generation implants are still not Fda approved, but are ready in other countries.
History of Breast Silicone Implant Litigation - 1977-1999
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