All language subtitles for Explant.2021.720p.WEB.h264-OPUS

(bright music)

- [Michelle] Ironically,

they're not as big as
people think they are.

- [Man] Your boobs?

- [Michelle] Yeah.

- [Man] They're pretty big.

- They're big-ish, but they're
not.

When I'm on the show, I do this.

So people get the real effect,
but really they're not.

That's what the joy is,

pushing them up, and making them
cartoony.

It's all about the cartoon
effect.

- Well, a big trend in queens
these days

are those latex boobs.

- Uh, I don't like the way they
look, those aren't breasts.

These are breasts.

- Oh, girl.

- [Michelle] These are breasts.

- You don't have to tell me
twice.

(upbeat music)

- The reason I showcase my
breasts so much in my career

is because I love them.

As a teenager, my
breasts were nonexistent.

I was literally ribs, nipple.

I had a specific boyfriend

who used to play the bongos on
my chest,

and he did it in jest,

but I think somehow that stuck
with me.

And so my best friend and
I sent away for this cream

to make our chests grow

that we got from the back of a
magazine.

None of it worked, and
instead of embracing it,

it was always in the front of my
mind.

Weird that I couldn't have
security, but I just didn't.

I got my first set of
implants when I was 21.

I never felt complete
without them, so I did it.

I did it three times over.

So I got what I wanted, and
I had them for 16 years,

and all along, they were
making me sicker and sicker,

I believe.

I was sick for actual years.

Doctors kept saying it was in my
head.

Every single one says, you're
fine.

And then finally in 2018, I was
online,

and I saw that there
were tens of thousands.

I'm not even exaggerating.

Tens of thousands of women out
there

with the exact same symptoms
that I had.

- Leg swelling, pain in the
joints.

- [Woman] I couldn't even
walk up a flight of stairs.

- [Woman] Chronic yeast
infections, sinus infections.

- [Woman] Brain fog, migraines.

- I got to a point where I
couldn't get out of bed anymore.

I was in that much pain.

- [Michelle] I started Googling
curing autoimmune disease,

and then the term breast
implant illness was on there.

And then I found the Facebook
group.

- [Reporter] Right now there's
an online group of women

who think their health issues

can be linked back to their
implants.

- [Michelle] And on there,

women that had explanted
right then and there

were telling me everything
changed.

They felt so much better.

- I woke up from that
surgery explant, and feeling,

taking that first full breath.

And you explant ladies know
what I'm talking about.

I took my first full breath,

and I no longer felt like I was
burning alive on the inside.

- [Michelle] I knew this was it.

I bought it from the beginning.

I was never skeptical, it was
it.

So once I figured it out,
I wanted to tell everyone.

- I have implants.

I got my implants about two
years ago.

So when Michelle called to tell
me about,

she thinks she has breast
implant illness

I was really annoyed.

I had no idea there was even
risk.

A part of me wants to go back
to my surgeon, and be like,

why would you not say something?

But he'll probably deny it.

They don't even admit it

because they'll lose patients,
and they'll lose money.

(bright music)

- [Reporter] The FDA and medical
community

do not recognize breast implant
illness as a real condition.

- There have been many
large-scale scientific studies

that don't appear to show

that breast implant illness even
exists.

- Breast implant illness is
more of a psychosomatic ailment.

It's almost a fad.

You know, it's totally
socially contagious.

The breast implant illness,
social media groups,

they're turning their patients
against their doctors.

They are way out of their lane,
and are doing a lot of harm.

- I just can't say that
this is a toxic biomaterial.

Does that look unsafe?

It looks absolutely safe to me.

It just enhances the
breast just that much.

- I've actually had 16 great
years with these boobs.

Are you gonna miss these?

They fed you.

- No.

- [Michelle] Really?

- No, I honestly got scared
that your career was gonna end

after you got your boobs
removed, I'm not even kidding.

- When I told you that
I was thinking about it?

- [Lillie] Yeah, like,
I actually felt like,

no one was gonna like you
anymore.

- When did I tell you, like,
about two years ago, right?

- [Lillie] Yeah.

- I was talking, this is how
long ago I started thinking,

I want to get them out because
I think there's a connection.

- I remember vividly telling
you, like, crying telling you,

I didn't want you to get them
out

'cause, like, you weren't
gonna have as job.

- No, you weren't crying,
how it went was this.

Well, there goes your career.

- Okay.

- [Michelle] That's how it went.

- [David] Wow.

- [Michelle] You really think?

- That's like your entire brand
is, like,

based off that, like.

- Yeah, but do you think
that I am just my boobs?

- I never said that, I just said
you're-

- [Michelle] No, I'm asking you.

- No, I don't think you are,

but your, like, entire brand
is, like, about your boobs.

- Yeah, true, but my entire
brand is based off my talent.

- And your boobs, right?

- [David] That's like a
microphone drop.

- Thank you.

- [David] Thanks.

- Here's my question.

How do you know some of
your symptoms aren't just?

- I don't know.

- [Lillie] Like, created
mentally?

- [Michelle] I don't know.

- I just think it's important
not to jump to conclusions,

or you know what I mean?

There just has to be
significant amounts of.

- If you're sick enough, you
can jump to a conclusion,

and I'm sick of being sick.

And there's hundreds of
thousands of women out there

that are sick of being sick.

And the thing is, every
time I go to a doctor,

you're normal, your test
is normal, it's anxiety.

- What happens when you bring up
the idea

that you think it's the
implants?

- Dr. Allen said,

they tell us in medical
school that they're safe.

- [Lillie] Do you regret getting
them?

- No, because I had a lot
of good years with them.

- Right.

- I don't regret it.

I just resent that I
wasn't told the truth.

And the truth is these
can make you very sick.

- I don't know.

I think she's just, Lola says
she's faking it for attention.

- Lola?

Do you think I'd go through
surgery to fake for attention?

You think I need attention?

- A little.

- No, I think I don't, I get
enough.

Yeah, I get enough, plenty.

Not from you, but from everybody
else.

- Of course, I question it,
but I've always been supportive

'cause these illnesses
have been stretched over,

like, now decades, I think.

To have brain fog, Epstein-Barr
syndrome, sleep issues,

headaches, heart palpitations,
and stuff like that.

There was a lot of
symptoms, a lot of symptoms.

So I want her healthy
that's all that matters.

I don't care anymore, I
just want her healthy.

- [Michelle] I know it seems
crazy

that people are battling over
whether implants are safe

decades after they were
brought onto the market,

but it all started to make sense
for me

when I looked up the history of
implants,

and found out how this whole
thing began.

- [Interviewer] So how
did you guys find out

what your dad was famous for?

- [David] Kind of an interesting
story.

- Your fourth grade
story was a good story.

- So I was in fourth or fifth
grade,

came home to dinner one night,

and the topic came up that
dad was gonna be on TV.

I was like, how cool is that,
right?

And so I go to school the
next day, and tell my teacher.

Hey, my dad's gonna be
on TV, can we watch?

And she's like, "Well,
sure, that's great."

And so this opening shot
is the medical reporter

standing in front of, I think,
the OR doors, or something,

I vaguely remember,

and she's holding
silicone breast implants.

And the teacher was like,

"We're gonna turn it off
and let's go to recess."

That was kind of my first
realization that that item was,

you know, his baby that he
created.

- He started in Canada.

He was a Canadian citizen,

and migrated here after medical
school

because he wanted to be a
capitalist.

He didn't feel like he had
that opportunity in Canada

because of the medical system
they had.

And that's what it's all about.

* Only in America can
a guy from anywhere *

* Go to sleep a pauper and
wake up a millionaire *

* Only in America can
a kid without a cent *

- Gerow and Cronin told me
they wanted to do something

that would be as big as
the artificial heart.

- Well, what we have done is
to replace the human heart

not only anatomically, but
functionally.

- As big as the NASA space
exploration.

- [Reporter] We have lift
off, we have lift off.

- They wanted to be
world-famous.

Gerow was a friend of mine,

and he had a bigger ego than
I do, this is saying a lot.

So in '62, Gerow is making
rounds

at one of the county hospitals

where he also did his charity
work.

All of us did charity
work, believe it or not.

And he made rounds and
he felt this IV bag.

- It just happened to be the
same day

they stopped putting
liquids in glass bottles,

and had begun to put
them into plastic bags.

So he's walking down the hall

with this bag of warm blood,
soft.

- It feels like a breast.

That's where the whole idea came
from.

- Now, at the same time,

there was a company called Dow
Corning,

and they have a new product.

It's a material that can
be made into solid liquid,

or gel, or anything in between.

- [Narrator] This is Dow
Corning in Midland, Michigan,

the world's first and
largest silicone plant.

Silicones are a remarkable
recent development.

A great step forward in
the science of chemistry.

Say, Dr. Miller, what kind
of silicone mixture is that?

- This, just hold on.

This is just a little
polydimethylsiloxane.

- [Narrator] Complex compounds
for making life simpler.

- Silicone was invented
around World War II,

and it became this really wonder
material.

Initially, it was used

for things like lubricating jet
engines.

After World War II,
manufacturers of silicone

started looking at more civilian
markets.

- So Cronin goes back to his
office and calls Dow Corning.

This is Dr. Thomas Cronin in
Houston.

And would you think about
making a breast implant

out of your new material?

The answer was yes.

- It was that simple.

- This was like the
Wright brothers airplane.

(bright music)

We weren't the first to
try to augment the breast

with an implant,

but every single case
of it before that time

had a lot of body reaction, all
negative.

- We saw some really odd
materials,

things that were at hand.

Things like woodchips, glass
balls, even kinds of yarn.

- [Dr. Patten] And then at the
end of World War II in Japan,

the Japanese ladies wanted
to have bigger breasts

so that they could marry
American GIs.

- There were barrels of
silicone on the harbor

in Yokohama Harbor during
the American occupation.

And barrels of it started
disappearing

because Japanese prostitutes
were actually injecting

some of the silicone
right into their breasts.

- And it was a gigantic disaster

because silicone caused
tremendous inflammatory changes,

and an activation of the immune
system,

such that the tissues were
destroyed.

Direct injection of silicone
was outlawed right away.

- So one of these new silicone
bags

could be the much better
solution,

or perhaps the next implant
revolution.

- Dow Corning, they sent us

a little tester about that big,

and we put it underneath
the skin of a dog.

Esmeralda was the dog,
and the dog survived,

and everything went well
so that was our research.

And with that we told them, yes,

we're ready to put an
implant into a patient.

(telephone ringing)

- Hello.

I'll tell you.

I'm being interviewed
right now, so I can't talk.

- [Woman] What are you
being interviewed for?

- Well, you know about my
breast?

- [Woman] Oh, okay.

- You forgot that?

Okay.

- [Woman] Bye.

- Bye-bye.

What did you ask me?

So my implants were put in long
about '62.

I guess the world would
be surprised to see

here I am 88, and still going.

How it started because I'd
gotten some tattoos on my
breast.

I didn't stop at one,
I went one, two, three.

I regretted it 'cause my dad
preached,

never mark your body.

Well, having them a year or so,

I was just desperate to get them
off.

And that's how I come to
get to meet Dr. Gerow.

He was such a nice man.

He was handsome and tall.

See, I'd never seen any
professional person before.

I just had a crush on him,
secret one.

Dr. Gerow asked me,

would I like to have my breasts
implanted?

And I said, well, I don't know.

I said, but I'd rather have my
ears fixed

'cause I used to be called
big ears, and big foot

through the getting my breast
fixed.

Then they said, well,

they'd fix that too, and then I
did it

(quirky music)

I just felt real proud about it.

After I got out of the
hospital, and the first time I'd

been out on the street in
downtown Houston

I got a lot of cat-calls.

And I'd always thought
I was the ugly dumpling,

but getting the breasts implant,

and beginning with the
doctors, and everything,

I'd just come out of all that,

and realized that I was
good as anybody else.

- No, okay, so you're
gonna have them removed.

Now what happens to
your emotional identity

once they're gone?

- The reason I got them
was for my self-confidence.

I needed them because of
male-dominated society telling
me,

and boyfriends that I wasn't
as attractive with no tits.

I always had a great ass,
but I never had tits.

- Right, because if you look at
the first

Seduction album cover,
you don't have them in.

Is that correct?

- No, I had nothing in.

- Yeah, because that's the album
cover

you are flat as a board.

- [Michelle] Flat as a board.

Right after high school,

I was in a girl group called
Seduction,

and we had a huge song called
"Two To Make It Right."

So that album cover
followed me everywhere.

And I absolutely hated it

because it reinforced
all of my insecurities

every single time I looked at
it.

- And how soon after that
picture was taken, did you,

how many hours after that
picture was taken did you?

- Minutes.

Booked the next flight home
to Dr. Rosenberg, yeah.

So I did that really early on,

and it was my own identity,
thinking I wasn't worthy.

I'm not anti-plastic surgery.

If you love plastic surgery,
I love plastic surgery,

but it doesn't work right for
everybody.

And for me, I think my implants
are causing my ill health.

When I got my first
set of breast implants,

I was told that breast
implants were 100% safe,

and that there were no dangers
at all,

but as it turns out,

that's what women have
been told since day one.

(reflective music)

- I met Dr. Gerow when
my girlfriend called me,

and had an appointment
with him for liposuction.

And I was just going to be in
the room just to be a friend.

He was examining her sutures,

and her sutures were loosely
stitched

between the buttocks and her
thigh.

He surprisingly raised that area
up

where you can actually
look inside the cavity,

which took me by surprise.

It was like looking into
a chocolate Easter bunny.

When he raised her buttocks
up, he looked at me,

and went wah-ha-ha-ha, you know.

I really liked Dr. Gerow.

When we were about finished
with her appointment,

her doctor appointment,
he looked at me and said,

I was wearing a violet sweater.

He said, "You don't look so
perfect in your sweater."

And I said, "Well, what
do you mean by that?"

And he explained that he was the
inventor

of the breast implant, and then
he said,

"Why don't you come see me
sometime?"

I was taking modeling classes,

and acting classes at the time.

And so I thought,

well, gee, I might
venture into this and see,

you know, it seemed so easy.

And I went to visit him on an
appointment.

I had a list of questions.

Are breast implants
decompressible?

Because I was taking scuba
classes.

And are they okay if you're
flying in an airplane?

I wanted to know the
integrity of an implant.

And he said, "No, they're fine."

He really believed in his
product.

So, therefore, I elected
to have the surgery done.

I mean, I was happy from the
beginning.

And then I realized

that something is wrong with
this implant.

It's flat, it doesn't match the
other one.

It lost its volume.

I went back to see him saying,

I think something is
wrong with this implant.

He said, "You have a rupture."

Now what do we do?

He said, "Well, I'm gonna
have to replace it."

I just said, "Okay, fine,"

but he said, "I'm gonna have
to replace both of them."

So he increased the size.

And I had a size C instead of a
B.

I didn't understand why he
wanted to make me larger.

- He liked big breasts.

And I think this was a personal
failing.

So he would have a patient on
the table,

and install implants

that really looked like
this woman was stacked.

Nope, not good enough, take it
all down.

And another two hours
put in a bigger one, so,

it was never enough for him.

- So I went home,

but then later I had
another rupture again.

So he said, "Well, you're gonna
have to replace it again."

And then gradually I was getting
tired.

I was fatigued.

I started getting body aches.

Then I started breaking
out in skin rashes.

Gosh, my hair started
falling out in clumps.

I went back to see him, he said,

"Go see Dr. Bernard Patten.

He is a neurologist.

He's with Baylor College of
Medicine."

- Gerow found a number of people

that he had done implants on

developing neurological
problems,

weakness, fatigue,
trouble seeing, thinking,

reading, writing, remembering,

chewing, swallowing,
talking, climbing stairs,

getting out of a chair, off the
toilet,

anything you can think of

that seemed to refer
to the nervous system,

Gerow would send the patient to
me.

So I began to see a group of
referred patients from Gerow,

and they all had implants 'cause
he was the implant doctor.

This was the implant mecca.

I began connecting the dots,
and seeing the obvious,

is that the implant

was somehow stimulating the
immune system

to make the patient sick.

- I'm not a doctor,

but it doesn't take a rocket
scientist now to go back,

and realize it was too soon

for Dr. Gerow's product
to be on the market.

These were making people sick
and ill,

and I need to do something about
it.

- Doctors told me,

you guys are really doing
women a disservice by,

because this isn't real and
made me feel really guilty.

- [Woman] I think we all look.

- [Woman] We all look normal.

- [Woman] 'Cause doctors
don't take us seriously.

- [Woman] It's an invisible
illness.

- I overheard a really
good friend of mine.

I heard her talking
quietly to someone else.

She's a nurse also.

Well, I think sometimes these
women

just want to attribute
their symptoms to something.

I don't really think that.

I mean, she didn't know I was
listening, but I heard her,

and it really hurt me 'cause she
has them,

and she has no issues,

but just because you don't
know something exists

doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

- [Michelle] Did you confront
her?

- No, I didn't want to do
it in a room full of people.

- [Michelle] She's also your
friend.

- [Woman] Right.

- Who here has explanted
already?

- I've gone to several
plastic surgeons asking,

and I've had two male
plastic surgeons tell me

you're not gonna be happy

with the way you look if you do
this.

- Yeah, that's the line
that they give everybody.

- [Woman] That's insane.

- And female doctors do it too.

- How do you know what
I'm gonna be happy with?

How dare you tell me.

- [Woman] At this point
it's not about looks.

- No, we're way past that point,

we're way past that point, yeah.

- [Michelle] It's not about
looks anymore.

- Part of the reason I was
seeking out

female plastic surgeons

was because I thought
they would understand.

- [Michelle] Oh, they have a
bunch of crazy ones out there.

I'm gonna use the word crazy.

- They don't, they don't.

After I told her and I'm crying
and telling her all this,

all these things that I'm going
through,

and I'm tired of it.

And I'm so happy I'm gonna get
this out,

and I'm so happy she's
gonna do it, she says,

"So I guess you won't consider
putting another implant in?"

- [Michelle] Oh my God.

- [Woman] Having beautiful tits

are pretty pointless
if you're stuck in bed.

- Yeah.

- I like that.

- [Michelle] That's a good line.

- [Woman] Not having sex.

- True because you're too tired.

- You're not parenting, you're
not doing, you're existing.

- [Woman] I haven't had sex this
year.

- Oh, I'm not even gonna say
how long it's been for me.

I'll embarrass my husband.

- [Woman] Please don't record
that.

- [Michelle] They're troopers,
the ones that have stuck.

- [Woman] He needs some male
support,

another husband who's gone
through this.

- It's not easy on them, it
isn't.

- No, it's been rough for us.

- Of course.

- We got married three years
ago, and just the decline,

so I'm not the person that he
married.

When you go to a doctor,

and they want to give you
another pill,

they want basically just to
brush you off.

It's very isolating,

and it makes you feel like you
are crazy.

Sorry.

I just want if I can help one
person

to know that you're not
alone and you're not crazy.

And that this is something
that is happening

to hundreds and thousands
and maybe millions of women.

- It's wild that history is
repeating itself, though,

because so many women went
through this

in the '80s and '90s, and
now it's all happening again.

And it's like, everyone has
amnesia,

but it's just wild that
there's these doctors

that aren't remembering what's
happened.

And you'd think that they
would have been taught.

- I believe, in my opinion,
the first to get them out,

to have them explanted.

It was early '80s.

Dr. Patten said,

"You show the signs of silicone
exposure in your body."

He let me know that
there is a correlation,

and I really felt the need in my
mind

to really get these out.

That's when I went
through the Yellow Pages,

and searched for a surgeon

to get them out as soon as
possible.

I went to the appointment,
and I said, "I had a rupture."

And I said, "Get these out."

And I said, "When you take
them out, I'd like to have them

because I wanted to sue the
manufacturer

because they're making
faulty breast implants."

You have to have data in
order to prove your case.

I wanted to know why I got sick.

Find out what was happening to
me.

Did this happen to another
woman?

But I never got my implants
back.

I don't know whatever happened
to them.

After the surgery, I
went to him, and said,

"I thought you were
gonna give to those to me

after the surgery."

And he said, "Well, it's
for your protection."

He said, "Let's get your sutures
out."

He avoided, and then he laughed
when he took out the suture,

he goes, "Well, have you
adjusted to your new shape?"

I was disfigured, and he
laughed.

Like I did not think
that that was very nice

for a surgeon to laugh at a
woman,

and treat her that way in
that fashion, you know?

I don't want to cry 'cause
this has been a long time.

I have to get over it,

but, you know, it was, you know,
it was.

So I wanted to pursue a
products liability case.

I called different attorneys,
and I was laughed at.

People said, "Oh, that's
ridiculous.

There's no such thing as
ruptured breast implants."

No one believed me.

- [Doctor] You see those areas?

- [Woman] Yes.

- Those areas show
microcalcifications.

I'd like to schedule a biopsy.

- What if it's cancer?

- If anybody had told me in 1983

that a diagnosis of breast
cancer

would give me a 30 year career,

I would have been blown away,
but that's what happened.

(reflective music)

I was 43, I was diagnosed
with breast cancer,

had bilateral mastectomies,

and my first set of breast
implants.

- Mom.

- They ruptured.

- [Woman] This can't be normal.

- Actually, it does happen.

- Set number two, same thing
happens.

- Now what?

- Surgery again.

- Set number three, I'm starting
to think

that this is really not a very
good thing,

but what am I gonna do?

- Perhaps we shouldn't put new
ones in.

- I don't want to spend the
rest of my life looking,

and feeling like a freak.

- [Man] You're not gonna
look like a freak not to me.

- Set number four I said I am
done.

And if it had happened to me,

then it had to have
happened to other women too.

So I started to look around to
find out

what the situation was.

- How can the FDA approve a
product with such serious risks?

- We haven't.

- Excuse me.

- When I found out that
they had never been approved

by the FDA I almost had a heart
attack.

(reflective music)

- The kinds of studies that
one should engage oneself,

we didn't do.

Nobody even thought about
a series of studies.

You have a new implant you
put it in, and it works.

And the patient is happy, and
then let's put in another one.

- So they were considered
an experimental device,

but when I went to buy them,
oh, these are fabulous.

People have been using them
since the '60s, oh, my my.

So everything was to make
me, put me on the defensive,

but don't put me on the
offensive
'cause when you do that,

you have lost your battle,
and that's what happened.

I did not find any other
information

about women having problems,

so I decided to write the
article.

Once that article
appeared, my world changed.

I started getting letters from
women

who had read the article,

and they told me their
experiences.

They were much more horrendous
than mine.

And we decided to have an
information clearinghouse

because you couldn't get it
directly from the doctor.

And I put everybody's name
on a three by five card.

Write it down on a card,
put it in the little box.

It was endless.

We probably had somewhere
between 15,000 and 20,000 names.

And after that, the Connie
Chung show contacted me.

The lid blew off of my life.

- Most of us know little
about breast implants.

We've seen the ads.

We've heard the rumors about
which celebrities have them,

and which don't,

but we don't know anything
about the dangers.

- Connie Chung said,
"Would you allow a picture

of your failed implant to be
shown?"

And I said, "Yes, I would."

- [Connie] Sybil Goldrich
gave up on implants

after five operations left her
breasts mangled and infected.

She allowed us to use this photo

as a graphic example of her
ordeal.

- My daughters were so angry at
me.

They just thought I was putting
too much out in the open.

It's one thing for me to speak
about it,

but it's another thing to see
something.

And what I let them see
was pretty horrific.

- [Connie] Today she's demanding

that doctors warn women of
all the dangers they may face.

- Nobody has done the kind of
studies

that are required for
this kind of product.

Just as I say that it's my
belief

that the implants are harmful,

the drug companies, and the
manufacturers

don't have any proof that it's
not.

Why should we be in
this catch-22 situation,

30 years after the fact?

- Every single woman went
to see her plastic surgeon

the next day,

and the doctors started calling
it Connie Chung disease.

- You know, this was in my
estimation,

frank yellow journalism.

It was just so dogmatic

in terms of breast implants are
not safe.

And so then FDA Chairman,
Kessler,

had all of these hearings.

- The implants hardened,
migrated,

generated one infection after
the other.

- I would give anything to be
restored

to the condition I was

before I had my breast implant
surgery.

- 25 years of study and
experience
have shown these devices

to be as safe as most things in
life.

(reflective music)

- A journalist got hold
of these documents,

hundreds of pages of internal
documents.

He contacted me.

The documents were very
quotable, and very shocking.

I ended up showing it
to the FDA commissioner.

- Dow knew that their product

stimulated the immune system in
1975.

The FDA subpoenaed the company
documents that say that.

- In addition to that,

the documents had a lot of
internal memos

from salesmen at Dow Corning.

They were saying things like

I'm telling the plastic surgeons

that there are clinical trials

with my fingers crossed behind
my back,

or the implants

when I put them on the
doctor's desk to see them,

they're greasy.

They're leaving a grease mark on
the desk.

And that makes a very bad
impression

'cause it looks like it's
leaking.

And then, of course, there's
the higher up at the company

saying just keep washing your
implants,

so that they don't leave a
grease mark.

There was clear dishonesty
in many different directions.

- I am asking that physicians
cease using

silicone gel implants.

As physicians, our first
obligation is to do no harm.

(dramatic music)

- I'm angry, and frustrated, and
scared.

- They tell you it's in your
head.

You begin to think you're crazy.

It's very real.

- Walk in my shoes.

You want a study?

Study me.

(indistinct)

- We have recalls for seat
belts.

We have recalls for cigarettes.

Where's our recall for
this defective product?

You should be ashamed of
yourself.

(applause)

- All these women were coming,

and wanting their breasts
taken out, and this,

and all these bad things
happening.

And for me, it didn't,

and they've just been
a good thing, lasting,

but I don't know, so many
women were claiming this,

and claiming that.

And I don't know whether
it was true or not.

- There was a bonanza medically.

And then the interesting thing
was

there was a bonanza legally

because a lot of these implants
turned out to be toxic.

- [Narrator] In the Old West
justice was hard to find.

Today when you've been hurt on
the job,

you need a lawyer ready to
handle

the challenges of a new
frontier.

- Houston has a very high
concentration

of personal injury lawyers.

It was for many years a
blue-collar town,

and it was close to the port,

so you had all of these
blue-collar injuries.

- [Narrator] Working long
hours in the oilfield

is dangerous, hard work,

and it's a challenge just to
make it home safely everyday.

- The guys who are the most
successful plaintiff's lawyers

in the country, if not the
world, they're like sharks.

- [Narrator] When you have
an accident, or a job injury,

dial Law-1000.

- They're always trawling
for new business.

- If you've been hurt in any
accident,

you can talk to an attorney
who can settle most cases

without going to court.

- I think when someone heard,

hey, a couple of women are
getting sick with these things.

I'm sure someone like John
O'Quinn immediately thought,

oh, well, let's investigate.

- Make no mistake, we are
engaged in a holy war.

We're gonna win this fight.

We're gonna win it because we're
right.

And we're gonna win it

because like no case I've ever
worked on,

this is the champion of all of
them.

(applause)

- You know, it was all money.

And in Houston, especially, at
that time,

that's what was valued.

So if the plastic surgeon
is getting wealthy,

and John O'Quinn was getting
wealthy,

it was like, hey, it works for
everybody.

And if there are these women
getting sick in the middle,

well, somebody, you know, you
get help at the front end.

You get help at the back end.

- Okay, let me try that.

Hey guys, I'm posting this
to give you some news.

This is the last time you're
going to see me with these.

I know they're a national
treasure,

but I believe for the past 20
years,

these breast implants
have been making me sick.

And I'm documenting this
journey,

and I'm sharing it with you,

so stay tuned for all the
details.

I love you, and I'll see
you on the lighter side.

Okay.

Here we go.

My God, it's like I'm
nervous, I never get nervous.

Hey guys, I'm posting this
to give you some news.

This is the last time you're
going to see me with these.

I know they're a national
treasure,

but I believe for the past 20
years

these breast implants have been
making me-

- I follow Michelle Visage on
Instagram.

I felt that I really had to make
a comment

talking about my experiences.

I was fresh out of college.

And my first new job was
in a med corporation.

And they're a breast implant
manufacturer.

They hired me right away, and
we were doing experiments.

This was right kind of in the
middle

of when Dow Chemical was being
sued.

There was a lot of lawsuits
going on

regarding breast implants.

- [Reporter] Once silicone
implants

were taken off the
market, saline implants,

which are basically silicone
bags filled with saltwater

were marketed as the new safe
alternative,

but even as the manufacturers
were making this claim,

no one had done the studies

to confirm whether or
not it was even true.

- People were saying, implants
are saline now they're safe,

but we were still worried about
the shell,

which was still made of
silicone.

To make the shells you have
this there's, like, a bar.

And then there's, like,
the shape of the implant.

And it gets dipped into
the liquid silicone,

and then it's cured.

And then you seal them up,
and you fill it with saline.

So we knew that there's still
silicone.

We're still putting silicone in
the body.

Even though the gel was gone,

there's still silicone in the
implants.

So we needed to test for
the safety of the shells.

I did these experiments where
I would take the implants,

and set them on these silicone
disks.

It was, like, these round disks.

And you put the implant on top
of it.

And what happens is because
there's silicone on silicone

if there's any leakage,
the silicone from the shell

will get absorbed into this
silicone disk.

And so everyday, twice a
day, I'd weigh these disks.

And if it starts getting more
weight

then you know that it's
leaching from the implants

out into the body, potentially.

I weighed it for at least
six to eight months,

twice a day, five days a week.

And the weight would definitely
go up.

It's not saline that's coming
in.

It actually was silicone

because saline wouldn't
be absorbed into the disk.

It would just roll right off,

and could really start to even
see,

like, a glisten on the disk.

I mean, it was actually more
significant than we'd expected.

And I reported all my results.

And when reporting all
this data I'm thinking,

oh, so we're gonna, like,
change how this goes.

And it was really exciting.

And just time goes by and
nothing, nothing changes.

You'd think that there
would be some kind of action

that would happen with the
company that they'd say,

okay, well, let's maybe pull
this off the market for now,

but nothing ever happened.

I remember I took a tour of the
factory,

which ran 24 hours a
day, seven days a week,

365 days a year.

And it dumbfounded me to see

how many they were cranking
out they were still just,

they had just these machines
that were dipping those things,

dipping, dipping, dipping,
all day, all night.

There was so much money.

There was so much money they
were making

with these implants,

but we never did anything.

We never fixed anything,
never fixed anything.

The final tipping point for me,

there was a woman that
had an explant surgery.

She had to have her implants
removed.

They brought it back to the
office

so that we could look
at ways to improve it.

I looked at that and I thought
of her.

I'd never thought of her
before, the her, you know?

Where these were going,
who was wearing them.

After a while, it started to
feel funny just working there

because they were
controlling the information.

They were controlling
what women could know.

I felt like I was a part
of something sinister.

I made my exit from the
breast implant industry,

and never looked back.

- [Michelle] Okay.

Packing my bag to go
down to Newport Beach.

Of course, I have to have
a candle because you know.

Water bottles, and then
sweat pants, button-up stuff,

all these things,

and, guys, look, no
nails 'cause the surgery.

Ew, whose hands are these?

I'm so natural I could puke.

I'm shopping for bras.

I think I got the right
size right here, right?

Think I'm in the right section.

Here we go, that'll be me.

So my surgery is in two and a
half hours.

- [Lillie] I'm proud of you.

- Well, a prayer at noon would
be lovely.

- [Lillie] Okay.

- [Michelle] My atheist child.

- [David] Lillie, say
something nice to your mama.

- [Lillie] I love you,
and it's gonna be great.

- [Michelle] I love you too.

- [Lillie] Where the fuck are
your nails?

(laughing)

- [Michelle] When silicone
implants were banned,

I was working at a strip club
in Queens called Goldfingers.

I hosted the hot oil wrestling
show

because my breasts were too
small to get a job as a dancer.

My little kind of large B
cups weren't gonna do it.

The girls that made the money,

they were called featured
dancers, right?

They were huge, and they
were still getting implants.

Many of them were actually
going all the way to Houston

to get them because Houston

not only was the most
affordable place to get them,

they also went the biggest.

- After the FDA moratorium,

there was definitely a chill on
implants.

I mean, you literally couldn't
get silicone implants.

You could only get saline
implants.

So during the moratorium,

some of the largest
customers of breast implants

were women in the burlesque
industry,

and the cabaret industry.

Houston was ground zero for
that.

- The demand in the market
for topless dance clubs,

obviously, for breasts is
higher because, you know,

to put a slang phrase, it's a
titty bar.

- One of the marketing tactics
was that I would go out to,

there's probably not a
gentlemen's
club in Harris, Brazoria,

or Galveston County that I
have not personally frequented.

I used to always say
that I was out, you know,

selling boobs for Dr. Johnson.

He would always say,

"You're gonna go strum us up
some business this weekend."

I would actually go
into the dressing rooms.

And I had a way with the girls.

I would talk to them about a way

that we could make you
feel better about yourself,

improve your income, your
health, what's good for you.

- It was like, well, okay, you
have the silicone implants,

but we have now these saline
implants,

which are healthier,
and look more natural.

So I think, again, it's all
about the money, ultimately.

- I gave 500 business cards out

probably in just a few months.

He started Grand Teton Days.

It was a discounted
rate if you booked then.

Our day on a Teton Day was
just go, go, go, go, go.

The ladies would come in,

and we'd have a whole
waiting room out there,

and, golly, sometimes I'd
tell them, I'd say let's say,

be knocking on the door, let's
go.

- Come on, let's go because.
- Let's go.

- I knew Gerald quite
well, and I like Gerald,

although, he was even more
eccentric than was Frank Gerow.

- Every surgical day, radio on,

it have to be the country music.

- Oh yeah, uh-hmm.

- Willie Nelson.

- [Darlene] Yes, indeed.

- [Nurse] Linda, come on back,
Linda.

* If you've got the money
honey I've got the time *

We'll go honky tonkin'

- Get one on the table, get
them under, get them going.

Move them to recovery.

She's recovering while we're
getting another one going.

- There was a conveyor belt of
women

just coming through these
operation rooms.

- He would line up 20 patients,

and do 20 breast augmentations
all day.

- It's like boobs everywhere,
you know what I mean?

And this crazy doctor
in this Hawaiian shirt,

white cowboy boots, are
you for real right now?

* If you've got the money
honey I've got the time *

- He had a swimming pool,
it was like a breast.

It was a breast.

- And the nipple was the hot
tub.

- Yeah.

- Anna Nicole, she got
a lot of recognition,

and women got more comfortable
talking about breast implants

because of her publicity.

- Her career started right over
here

at a club called Rick's Cabaret.

- It was sort of a combination

of an old-fashioned titty bar,

and, like, an upper-class
British men's club.

So you could have your
cigars and your brandy,

and an 18-year-old SMU student

working her way through college.

- [Reporter] Strip clubs,

once found only on the seedy
side of town

have today become business
centers.

- Rick's was the first
publicly traded cabaret company

in the world.

It was American Express's
largest corporate account.

It really popularized large
breasts

for this mainstream market.

And in fact, from Rick's
Cabaret,

you had this idea of large
breasts migrating to Hollywood.

And from there the rest of the
world.

- Okay, I was straight as a
board when I was growing up.

I was flat-chested,
nothing compared to this.

- [Regis] There isn't much
compared to that, ha-ha.

- Anna Nicole, anytime she
would be in the spotlight,

it made a lot of young
girls feel comfortable

about talking about breast
implants,

and to actually get
out there and get them.

- [Woman] Thank you.

- [Woman] Can I have
your tits by any chance?

- [Man] No, no tits allowed.

- I'll give you my doctor's
name.

(upbeat music)

- Dr. Johnson, a lot of ladies
came to him

to be very, very, very large
sized.

And he's like, "What
can we do to do that?"

The largest implant that
you can buy is a euro sell,

it's overseas and from France.

And I believe that one goes only
up to,

like, three or 4,000 cc's,
but don't quote me on that,

but once you get to a certain
point with the big implants,

it voids the manufacturer
warranty for the implants.

What you're looking at here is

you're looking at polypropylene
string.

Now he put this string in
some of the largest ladies

that we have ever done.

The polypropylene string is just
that.

It was just like a big wad of
string, just wad of string.

I mean, he had an FDA experiment
approval, a patent on that,

and they had to sign a release.

- [Alma] So they have to sign.

- He would make a pocket,

usually a little under
the inframammary crease,

and put the string in.

What would happen is

the string is a foreign
body to the breast,

so the breasts would start to
react to this foreign body,

and have, like, almost
an allergic reaction,

or some type of reaction.

So it caused the serum
to just build and build,

and build and build and build.

What happened is we had to teach
patients

to take an 18 gauge
needle, and a 60cc syringe,

embed it on the breast,

and actually withdraw some of
the serum.

So if I didn't, like,
reduce with the syringe,

and the needle,

they would just get huge,
huge, huge, huge, huge.

Dr. Johnson, he's thinking,
okay, at some point

the body would stop,

and it would accommodate
this string implant,

and would stop making the
serum that didn't happen.

The breast tissue itself
would be compromised,

and the polypropylene

would start rubbing the
side of the breast wall.

And it could actually start
to evacuate out of the body.

He got more aggressive
with encouraging the ladies

to go ahead and get these out.

- I'm a ticking time bomb

because anything could happen to
me.

I was basically a victim of an
experiment.

I have one option, a mastectomy.

- If PPP would have worked,

wow, what an amazing thing
that would have been.

If it would have worked.

- [Alma] If.

(quirky music)

- With your implants being
older,

it wouldn't surprise me if at
least one of them is ruptured.

- Right.

- So you have your implants
surrounded by the scar sac.

The whole thing comes out in
one piece without any tear

in case there's a rupture,

because if you make a tear,

now some of that free
silicone gel will come out.

- [Michelle] For how long
have you only been explanting?

- [Dr. Chun] Probably about two
years.

- 'Cause you were doing
other stuff up until then,

and then it became.

- [Dr. Chun] Exactly.

- The primary.

- Yeah, 'cause the thing is

the more I would do this type of
surgery

as that volume went up,

and you start consistently
getting that same feedback.

Oh, my God, my life has changed.

I'm no longer bedridden
unable to do anything.

Now I'm out there my old self
again.

There have been some patients

where they're just a
completely different person.

- Right.

- [Dr. Chun] And that's
their old self coming back.

- Why do some doctors not
believe

that breast implant illness
is real do you think?

- Well, I mean, I think the
biggest thing is, you know,

as doctors we're trained
to be like scientists,

so we're supposed to use data
to formulate our opinions.

Then everyone points to
the core clinical studies

that were done.

And what we were told all these
years

was that studies have shown
referring to those two studies,

that there is no connection

between the implants and these
symptoms.

So that's the story that gets
told over and over and over.

And so everyone's mindset is,

okay, well, you can't
be sick from implants

because I've been told
that the study showed

that does not happen.

(dramatic music)

- In "Medicine Tonight"

in 1992 the FDA banned
silicone gel breast implants

for all, but a limited number of
women,

not because of known risks,

but because of possible risks.

Now four years later, many
are asking, was it real,

or was it a silicone scare?

- [Reporter] Recent
studies say there's no link

between silicone gel implants
and disease,

studies at the Mayo Clinic and
Harvard,

published in the prestigious
"New England Journal."

Some believe it's time
to take a second look.

- I look at it as the hoax of
the century.

- What happened was Dow
Corning had to do something.

They were gonna lose a lot of
money.

Number one, they had the
most popular breast implants

on the market.

Number two, they make
pretty much all the silicone

sold in this country.

Number three, they were sued,

and it was their desire to
not have to pay $3 billion.

So Dow Corning took some money
from its marketing budget,

not its research budget,

but from its marketing budget,

and started hiring academic
researchers to do studies

that would show that
their implants were safe.

- [Reporter] Some believed the
Harvard,

and Mayo Clinic studies
are seriously flawed,

concerned that the research,

and some of the researchers
themselves

were funded by breast implant
makers,

that the studies didn't follow
enough women for long enough.

And that they focused on the
wrong thing.

- You have the ability to take
a little bit of information,

and pretend that it
answers all your questions.

When it, number one, can't
possibly answer those questions.

And number two, was never
designed to answer the questions

because the people paying for
the studies

made sure that the questions
were asked in a way

that would make their product
look good.

- At the end of the day,

they did those studies to
sell silicone implants again.

I mean, I think we can never
discount individual experiences

because here what we have
are a group of healthy women,

they get their breast implants
put in,

and all of a sudden they don't
feel well.

- Right.

- And then they get
their implants taken out,

and they feel better.

- [Michelle] Right.

- So I don't think you can
discount that.

Is it as good as a large control
study?

No, but certainly I think that
should raise flags and say,

hey, something's definitely
going on here.

- At some point, what was
happening is the plastic
surgeons

were saying there are
now dozens of studies

showing how safe breast implants
are.

And a lot of those dozens
of studies were published

by the same researchers funded
by the implant manufacturers,

and their summary was there's no
evidence.

(dramatic music)

- The multiple randomized
prospective studies

that have been performed
show no demonstrable link

between silicone gel breast
implants,

and health or safety concerns
for women.

- The scientific studies
have failed to demonstrate

that women with these devices
have greater health risk

than women without implants.

- There are treatment options
available,

which foster the safety,
efficacy, and patient
satisfaction

of silicone breast implants,
thank you.

- There is major medical news
tonight

about silicone breast implants.

Late today, the FDA approved
them for use

lifting a ban that has been in
effect

for more than a decade.

- The Food and Drug
Administration Advisory panel

voted seven to two,

to recommend approving the sale

of silicone gel breast implants

by the Mentor Company of
Santa Barbara, California.

Stock price ballooned 40
points after the approval.

(laughter)

We'll be right back.

(cheers and applause)

- I definitely feel my
heart beating faster.

Is that normal?

- [Nurse] It is, just a little
bit of nerves and anxiety.

- [Michelle] My whole life is
about to change completely.

I'm scared, I'm nervous, I'm
petrified.

- [Nurse] All done.

- All right, so I'm gonna go
ahead,

and put some markings on you.

You feel okay?

- I do.

- [Dr. Chun] Swing your legs
around.

- [Michelle] If this doesn't
work

it's back to the drawing board,

but I know so much that I'm
right.

I know that I'm gonna feel
so much better after this.

- Piece of cake, get those guys
out.

(soft music)

- She's sound asleep, all right.

So the surgery consists of
removing their implants,

but also the surrounding scar
tissue,

otherwise known as a capsule.

They don't want any foreign
material,

foreign body left behind, so
they want everything taken out.

The reason why there is
so few plastic surgeons

performing the procedure, as
I think it should be done,

remove the entire capsule
is because of this belief

that implants do not
cause any health problems.

So I've just now freed
up the entire implant.

Her implant is inside the sac.

I think it's intact.

I can't quite tell because
obviously we haven't opened it.

You know, women seeing
things on social media

are finally realizing,

hey, everyone else has the same
problem.

And a lot of them are getting
better.

So I'm gonna look into that.

Since the early '90s,

that's when Connie Chung broke
that story,

and actually when the floodgate
opened.

- [Reporter] But decades later,

social media provides a place

for a new generation of
women to commiserate.

- It's been, like, absolutely
horrific,

like, the amount of pain,

and, like, suffering that
I've had to go through.

- [Reporter] There are
thousands of women who do find

that they have these types of
symptoms,

but there have been many
large-scale scientific studies

that don't appear to show

that breast implant illness even
exists.

- It's being ridiculed,
denied, talked down to.

I'm afraid to ask for help.

- [Reporter] Within the medical
community,

little to no credibility is
given to possible connections

between illness and implants.

- Spoiler alert, it was
my freaking implants.

- So we'll leave that on the
back table.

So we just have to get
all the bleeding stopped,

and we'll be done.

After their surgery, I
can't explain exactly why,

but they seem to get better.

What I like to see happen
is this whole issue

becomes more of a
recognized medical issue,

not imagined symptoms by
a bunch of crazy women

'cause that's how this is
portrayed at this point.

- [David] My wife's awake, hold
on.

Wow, she powered out of that.

Honey.

- Uh-hum.

- [David] Hi.

- Hi.

- [David] How are you?

- How'd it go?

- It went great, how are you
feeling?

- Oh, tired.

- [David] Tired, you
want to keep sleeping?

- Keep sleeping.

- [David] Okay, I'm right here,
okay?

- Yeah.

- [David] Okay, love you.

- [Michelle] How are the
capsules?

- [David] Capsules, I'm
gonna check it out now, okay?

All right?

Do you want to see it later,
yeah?

Okay, I'm gonna go check it out
now, okay?

All right.

- At the end of every procedure
I do,

I always examine the
capsule and the implants,

so that I can determine if
there are any abnormalities.

So at the end of the day,
you know what we see here,

I think, it's interesting,
but it's not diagnostic.

They all came out in one piece,
you know,

there's nothing leaking out.

- [David] Can I ask,

do you have a prediction
on either of them?

Do you think either?

- [Dr. Chun] I don't
think this one's gonna be.

This one, maybe, maybe not.

This one, I don't think
it's ruptured the left one.

So I'll take a look.

- [David] Yeah.

- [Dr. Chun] Now you
always want to make sure

that you don't cut the implant
yourself.

So this one's intact.

- [David] Okay.

- [Dr. Chun] So this one looks
like,

this one's intact as well.

- [David] Two intact ones.

- Uh-hmm, so they're both
intact,

but, again, whether you see
things or not,

doesn't correlate with whether
you have symptoms or not.

Because, again, I think the
problem is

it's a reaction to the silicone
materials,

whether it's broken or not,

saline, silicone doesn't
really seem to matter

because it's the shell
that's got silicone.

- [David] Thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

They'll process it and then
we'll give it back to her.

- Two days from now?

- When she comes back,
yeah, when she comes in.

- [David] Great.

It's what, two days after the
surgery?

- Yeah.

It feels really weird,
they're just so little.

Oh my God, little, usually,
I'd be out to here.

- [David] Yeah.

- I'm totally flat-chested.

They're gonna be like
pancakes, I can tell.

So get some syrup, and some
butter.

- Hi, how are you?

- Dr. Chun, I'm so little.

- Huh?
- I'm so little.

- That's what Mother
Nature intended you to be.

- Yes, that is what
Mother Nature intended.

- That's you.

- You are right.

- All right, so how do
you feel more importantly?

- Pain-wise, what, a two, maybe.

- [Dr. Chun] That's great.

- There's really no pain.

- [Dr. Chun] No, that's good.

- Soreness, it feels like
when I got my implants in.

- Sure, so all the bad things,

all the worst things happen
in that first 48 hours.

- [Michelle] Right.

- So going forward, things are
gonna start getting better.

- [Michelle] Good.

- Even if you do nothing,
things are gonna get better.

So the worst is behind you
already.

- [Michelle] Okay.

- Each day it's gonna
get a little bit better,

a little bit better.

- From your mouth to God's ears.

I just can't believe how little
I am,

like, really, really little.

- Does it surprise you, are you?

- My belly is bigger than my
boobs got to work on that.

- [David] Are you not upset
that they're so small?

Then you're cool.

- No, I am not, I am so happy.

I'm able to detox and regain my
health.

- There you go, I love
you, no matter what.

- I love you.

Day 10.

- [David] Day 10, really?

- [Michelle] Day 10.

- [David] Generally, how do you
feel?

- Yesterday morning was
a rough morning for me,

and I feel, like, weak and
I could possibly pass out.

I've never passed out,

but I think that's what it feels
like, so.

This feels great healing
beautifully.

This is not quite there,
still lightheaded.

Didn't expect it to last this
long, but my body needs time.

Blood flow is brand new
after 30 years, I guess.

It's got to find its way back to
my brain.

Three months after, some
things have improved,

but not everything.

I'm definitely not one who
woke up and was healed.

So we are going to get my
toxicology reports of my hair,

skin, nails, blood.

This will show what, if
anything,

has been leached into my
body from these implants.

I do expect to find something
because I know I'm not crazy.

I know the way that I feel.

So there's something going
on from these things.

Okay, here we go.

Oh, I'm not gonna be able
to read these things.

Let's see.

Unknown chemicals and toxins.

What they found in my pee.

Dioctyl phthalate, the
plasticizer,

and organosilicones
detected in trace amounts.

I mean, organosilicone sounds
like

it has to do with the implants.

It's obviously from these.

(soft music)

I'm Michelle.

- [Dr. Patten] Welcome.

- [Michelle] Nice to meet you.

Have a look, tell me what you
think.

There are hair, urine and skin.

- The silicones leak from the
implant,

and they do travel in your body,
so,

and it looks like it migrated
all over you, it's all over.

So you're a typical case.

A low molecular weight silicone,

which is what they detected.

- [Michelle] Right.

- Dimethylsiloxane is
the immune stimulant.

Do you know what kind of implant
you had?

- [Michelle] Mentor.

- Yeah.

- Mentor smooth silicone gel.

- And the capsule did it have?

- Full en bloc.
- Yeah.

- And things are slowly getting
better.

- The usual patient that has
complete removal does recover

about two years later.

- I was gonna say in time,
in time, Dr. Patten, yeah.

- [Dr. Patten] It takes about
two years.

- Yes.

- So your body is actually
mobilizing the silicone.

- What does that mean
mobilizing the silicone?

- Excreted in the urine, or
in the stool, in the bile.

- [Michelle] Yes.

- And if there's no more coming
in

chances are you're going to
recover.

Believe it or not, the company's
knew,

the silicone migrating.

- So then, Dr. Patten,
why do they keep saying

the data says there's no harm?

- This is the whole
thing, it's a cover up.

Don't you get it?

Okay, it fools the people.

It's like President Grant's

physician wrote a paper that
Grant's cancer of the mouth

was due to smoking too
many cigars, that was 1870.

The medical literature since
that time

is full of smoking causes lung
cancer.

- Tobacco, yeah.

- Chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease.

And some tobacco companies
fought it like crazy.

They made it look like
it was controversial

that the evidence wasn't good
enough,

or that there was a
reasonable group of scientists

who thought differently, et
cetera.

There are economic forces at
work here.

- That's true.

- Billions of dollars are at
stake in plastic surgeons.

- [Michelle] Billions, yes.

- Billions, we're talking about
billions.

- Yes, 0.1% of doctors are
willing to know what you know,

and are willing to talk about it
I'm sure.

- I agree with you, I agree with
you.

After accumulating 2,000
sick women with implants,

they have to be convinced by the
evidence.

This is what Shakespeare
calls ocular proof.

I see it myself.

So I don't care what people say

because they haven't seen the
cases.

They don't know it.

- [Michelle] Right.

- They don't even know what
they're doing.

They are ignorant.

(soft music)

- [Reporter] A report just
released from MD Anderson

this morning,

researchers looked at the
largest group of women

with breast implants
that's ever been studied.

- Now they found there's a
higher risk of rare diseases

among these women than in
those without implants.

- The alarming news about breast
implants,

we've found evidence,

they could be linked to a deadly
cancer.

- [Reporter] A cancer of the
immune system

linked to breast implants called
ALCL.

The FDA told NBC News
it will meet next year

to discuss concerns about their
safety.

- I got PIP breast
implants in Dallas in 1998.

I developed chronic fatigue,
and auto-immune disease.

Other symptoms were swollen
lymph nodes, recurrent fever,

brain fog, and more.

- My memory became so concerning
to me.

I asked specifically to
start undergoing testing

for Alzheimer's.

- I started then having flu-like
symptoms

that I could not relieve.

This health crisis affects all
of us,

and has been going on for
decades.

- It's a vicious circle, you
know.

You can even compare it to rape
cases.

Fundamentally women aren't
believed.

- I'm a little emotional

because I still have
implants, and I'm very sick.

- I was prepared to say
goodbye to my family

because I didn't think

that I was gonna make
it through all of this.

- At some point we have to
stop and listen to women,

and look at them and say, I
believe you.

I believe that you're in pain.

And I want to do something to
help that.

- We must have better informed
consent,

so the patients can determine
the risk are low enough

to implant or not.

- Respectfully, I employ
you to require surgeons

to provide informed consent.

- Everyone deserves to have
a choice, I agree with that,

but we deserve to have an
informed choice.

- You have the power to make
that happen.

Please do what is right.

Thank you for allowing to speak.

(applause)

- This morning, the FDA's
call for a new warning

for the most popular cosmetic
procedure in the world.

We are talking about breast
implants.

- The FDA is proposing all
breast implants

contain a black box warning.

That label is the strictest
warning attached to a product,

meaning it comes with hazards,
including loss of life.

- However, those warnings would
only be seen by the surgeon,

not the patient because
unlike medications,

patients don't see
implant boxes, or labels.

- [Terri] Dr. Potter says
her hope is that the FDA

will do more to make sure
patients are informed.

For the KV Defenders, I'm Terri
Gruca.

(soft music)

- [Michelle] For 15 plus years,

I was told by every doctor that
I saw

that implants were 100% safe.

So now I'm sitting here
wondering

is this new mandate by the FDA
enough

to change the doctor's
minds about implant safety?

(soft music)

- [Dr. Rose] At these recent FDA
hearings,

the newest thing, from what I
understand,

is to put a black box
label on the implant.

- Well, that's why I'm here.

The black box warning would
you warn your patients?

- Breast implant illness does
exist.

- Well, that in of itself is
validated.

- It exists, but I have
experience with maybe

six or 7,000 implant patients,

and out of all these
thousands of patients of mine,

I can only think of
three, or four, or five,

that have had what we would
call connective tissue disease.

And so I see so many patients
that are doing so well,

years and years and years and
years later.

- Yeah, it won't affect
everybody for sure.

- So does that mean you
just take all the implants

off the shelves,

and all these 10 million women
that are implanted worldwide

what happens then, you know?

- [Michelle] Well, true,

but you take the
responsibility off of yourself.

- Right, right.

- [Michelle] With full
disclosure.

- And if you follow
that black box warning,

and you had said to me,
Michelle, you're 33.

These got to come out because,

no, at 33 I wouldn't have done.

I'm telling you Dr. Rose, I know
me.

- Michelle, you're
hanging out in the clubs.

You're a young, beautiful girl.

- No, at 33 I was not,
I was a professional.

I was working, and I had two
kids.

I was not hanging out
anywhere, darlin' trust me.

- These girls, the young
patients,

it's beauty, beauty,
beauty, beauty, beauty.

- And I understand.

I'm in the vainest, vainest
industry there is, Hollywood.

I am telling you I get it,

but I also am telling
you because I care more,

you cannot money cannot buy you
health.

- Absolutely.

- So if somebody, if you Dr.
Rose, who I respect said,

Michelle, there's a small
percentage that there is a
chance

that you can get a neurological,
or autoimmune disorder.

And then you said, there's
a black box warning on this.

I would go, uh.

- But it's very difficult.

I think it's a very difficult
situation

because you just can't say
exactly what percentage

could have an adverse reaction.

- All I want is transparency
for the women out there

who are getting implanted
'cause I'm telling you,

I know me because I've
struggled for so long,

have to advocate for myself
'cause nobody else will.

So at least I'm armed
with the information.

And then if something
happens, I get to go,

well, he told me this could
happen, I didn't listen.

- Michelle, you're not the first
patient

that I've had this discussion
with.

- [Michelle] I bet.

- And I wish I could get my
arms more well around it,

you know?

I just wish I could understand
the whole process better.

- I don't want to be in this
position.

I don't want to be sick.

- [Dr. Rose] Right.

- It's not a made up
thing because it's real.

My blood, and my urine,
and my hair, and my skin

will show you that it's real.

It's not made up, but,
and you acknowledge that,

but the point is, I guess, to
wrap it up

the black box warning
will you tell the people?

- Sure, of course.

I mean, when patients come in,

so, typically, what you say is

you'll talk about these 1%
things,

and then probably if they
would broach the subject

a little bit, I'm happy
to talk to these patients.

Look, you've got to understand,
Michelle,

I'm not trying to at all
minimize breast implant illness.

I'm really not.

- Good.

- I think it's dreadful, it's
horrible.

I mean, what's particularly
dreadful to me

is did I harm a patient
knowingly, or unknowingly?

You know, I mean, it's
a little frightening.

- Right.

- But still, I mean, I don't
think

even though there's small little
risks,

I continue to be a very ardent,

and vocal supporter of
this biomedical device.

They are beautiful little
objects, aren't they?

Maybe it's not like looking at,
you know,

whales in the ocean, but it
is quite beautiful to me.

I think these implants
are really, really safe.

I feel dreadful.

This implant in my hands does
not rupture.

I would feel dreadful to think,

and I've got a letter
from Mentor Corporation,

ruptures reported in my
practice, 0% rupture rate.

And you could cut this,

and you would see this is a gel.

It's a very viscous, it's
a very viscous biomaterial.

It is a beautiful implant

in 99 plus, plus, plus percent
of patients

it's a very safe biomaterial
in my estimation.

- I think most plastic surgeons
are proud of their work,

and they don't want to believe
that these breast implants

that they've been putting
in all these women

are causing serious health
problems.

And I think plastic
surgeons like anybody else,

we all want to believe that
the work we do is worthwhile,

and we don't want to believe
that we've been doing something

that's harmed people.

(applause)

- London town.

(cheers and applause)

My name is Michelle Visage,

and these are what's left of my
tits.

(cheers)

Full stop.

I've recently gotten my
breast implants out, right?

Along the line I found
out something about myself

that I didn't expect to.

When I got them, I was 21 years
old,

and my record company was run by
men.

I was signed by men.

My production company was men,

and they all told me all along,
you know, you're really hot,

but you'd be sexier with boobs,
right?

What I realized when I was
healing was that all those years

of I thought that I was
doing it for myself,

and anybody that listens to the
podcast,

you've heard me argue with
Ru, say, no, I did it for me.

And I partially did it
for me, and by the way,

I'm not anti-plastic surgery.

No, if you want it get it,
but know what you're doing,

and know who you're doing it
for.

And at the end of the
day, I am 50 years old,

and I love my small tits for
the first time in my life.

(cheers and applause)

And I ain't doing it for
anybody apart from myself.

So when you look in the mirror
today,

today right now is all we have.

We don't have tomorrow,
it's not guaranteed.

So love yourself for who you
are.

You are beautiful and perfect
just as you are today.

(cheers and applause)

It's the truth.

(cheers and applause)

("Oh Dead On Oh Love" by Lisa
Papineau)

* Broken land, broken hands

* Digging my way to the other
side *

* But the dirt and dust

* Slide back into the hole

* So I'll swallow that earth

* Until I'm burst full

* Found wanting

* Oh dead on, oh love

* Your little world hid
fast base in shadow *

* Your little world
tastes of sweet and sour *

* One foot at a time girl,
one foot at a time girl *

* One foot at a time
girl, one foot at a time *

* One foot at a time
girl, one foot at a time *

(bright music)