By Leanna Pankratz (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: January 25, 2012
Poly Implants Prostheses, you have some s’plainin’ to do. How is it that under the watchful eye of a world renowned company, 50,000 women’s boobs have been filled with materials also found in fuel additives and rubber tubing?
PIP is a French implant provider considered to be one of the world’s most trusted. The company has also been the target of a recent scandal involving the usage of industrial grade silicone in place of medically sterilized fillers in their implants, after several cases of implants leaking and rupturing. Rupturing.
Now, let’s close our eyes and imagine the trauma of discovering that a silicone cushion of planted inside your bosom has ruptured and deflated, spreading of industrial goo throughout your breast, and eventually leading to the leeching of toxic silicon into your body system. Side effects of said ruptures involve serious boob itchiness, tissue bleeding, localized necrosis, hardening and scarring of breast tissue, and breasts that are left misshapen and uneven.
Sounds like a ripe good time to me.
As if that’s not bad enough, there have been cases of cancer reported by eight women. Tragically, two of those eight women have died. An estimated 50,000 women have been implanted with these low-grade prosthetics. PIP, you may not wash your hands of this travesty.
Let’s get this out of the way first: I’m all in favour of boob jobs. I care not for the battle cry that’s bound to follow any public pro-plastic comments. If a woman wants to add a little bang to her bod through the placement of cosmetic fillers into her breasts, so be it. I actually happen to admire those women who muster the courage to go all the way and make changes to an aspect of their body that perhaps have made them insecure. Yes, one must love their natural body first, but there are certainly cases that I’ve come across that grant validity to the fact that some women are just happier with Cs over As.
“Getting a boob job by no means makes me a bimbo,” says Jacqueline LaBoissonier, an Abbotsford woman who admitted to receiving breast implants four years ago. “If anything, it’s increased my confidence. Among my biggest pet peeves are the critics who accuse me of selling out to society’s beauty ideal. My Double Cs have been two of the finest purchases I’ve made.”
Now what if one (or both!) of those fine purchases popped like a water balloon inside the breast? Would that not require some due follow-up action? According to court officials, and many members of the observing public, the answer is actually a resounding no. There has been much discrepancy between countries with affected women as to what actions will be taken – some countries will pay for removal and replacement, others for removal only, and other not at all. This fact, simply put, makes me quite angry.
It’s not as if these women were getting under the table implants from some sketchy pseudo-doctor. These were not black market boobs. These were ladies looking for a safe and sanitary way to increase the size of their breasts – be it for reasons of insecurity, sexual satisfaction, or even such cases of women dealing with the effects of a mastectomy. The fact that Poly Implants Prothesis could go 10 whole years misusing the trust placed upon them by their patients for the wholly selfish reason of saving a few bucks is beyond infuriating to me.
Even worse, however, is the trouble these victimized women have faced from the court officials they’ve attempted to bring their case to. In discussion with friends over the issue, I was surprised to hear the amount of “they had it coming” comments. It’s almost as if the issue is somehow lessened due to the fact that the surgery was essentially a cosmetic procedure – that the patients/victims were basically asking for it in the first place by even considering a boob job. People, particularly women, seem to have something against anything that might remotely smell of vanity or money that perhaps wasn’t spent in an “appropriate” manner.
If I went the rest of my life without a breast augmentation, I would remain perfectly healthy. No one person on this planet is going to die from lack of silicone. However, does a procedure being “unnecessary” and “cosmetic” (no matter how potentially life/sex/mojo-enhancing) discredit the plight these women now face for perhaps the rest of their lives? It’s time to let go of the boob job bias.
Meanwhile, did any of these women go into surgery expecting to be filled with industrial silicone? I think not. Poly Implants Prothesis made a gross mistake in devaluing these women by cutting corners – basically telling them that their boobs are worth being pumped with second-rate plastic.
