NYTIMES: Do My Breast Implants Have a Warranty? BRAVO & Thank You to all who contributed!

SKIN DEEP

Amaranth Productions

BE PREPARED Dr. Edward Melmed, in a scene from "Absolutely Safe," removes an older-model silicone implant that failed.

By NATASHA SINGER

Published: January 17, 2008

A NAKED woman, her left arm strategically draped over her nipples, grins beatifically at readers in an advertisement for cosmetic surgery that equates breast implants with a more durable commodity: jewels.

Amaranth Productions

NOTHING LASTS FOREVER A patient in the anti-implant documentary film "Absolutely Safe."

Krista Schell needed two follow-up implant operations within five years of her first.

Jamie Schwaberow for The New York Times

Dr. Linda Huang tells patients that implants should be removed within 10 to 15 years.

"My plastic surgeon told me that my saline implants should last forever," said Krista Schell.

Ms. Schell, 29, who lives in Thornton, Colo., and works for the State of Colorado, said she first spent $6,500 in 2003 on breast enhancement surgery with a doctor in California. She had a second operation with that doctor last April to replace a deflated saline implant whose collapse made her left breast look "hollow"; her implants were still under warranty, but she did have to pay for the trip to California and lost a week's pay, she said.

Last November, Ms. Schell had a third operation, which cost $6,000, this time with a surgeon in Denver who removed both implants as well as extensive scar tissue, she said. She also lost two weeks' wages because she had to take time off, she said. The implants had also caused rippling, a lump around one nipple and pain. "If you look at the negatives, you would talk yourself out of getting implants," Ms. Schell said.

"If the envelope has broken down and the silicone has leaked out, you are trying to get out all of that goo," said Dr. Susan E. Kolb, a plastic surgeon in Atlanta who performs three to five explantation surgeries a week. To remove scar tissue, which can adhere to muscles and to the fibrous tissue covering the ribs, some doctors mistakenly remove too much muscle or breast tissue, which can cause chest deformities, she said. Click here for full article.

Death of Rapper's Mom Shines Light on Liposuction & Breast Surgery ... Bravo to Dr. Zuckerman for being quoted

Cosmetic surgery is so common in this town, you could forget it carries some risks.

Until someone famous dies while having a "procedure". That's what appears to have happened to Donda West, the mother of rap star Kanye West.

According to her publicist, Donda West underwent some kind of cosmetic operation (reportedly liposuction and breast reduction) at a facility in the L.A. area. Something went wrong, and she was taken by paramedics to the ER at Centinela Freeman hospital. Doctors could not revive her, and she was pronounced dead about a half an hour after she arrived.

Now, coroner's investigators will perform an autopsy to determine if she died from "complications of surgery." Donda West was 58 years old.

The fact that people can and do die from cosmetic procedures will shock many folks here. After all, plastic surgeons advertise their services on billboards and in glossy magazines. Sometimes you see them on TV news programs touting their work with "before" and "after" photos. They don't tell you that as with all surgery, there are no guarantees when it comes to safety.

Here's an excerpt from the Ethics Journal of the American Medical Association, March 2005, written by Dr. Diana Zuckerman:

Primary risks (of liposuction) include infection, damage to skin, nerves, or vital organs, fat or blood clots (that can migrate to the lungs, leading to death), and excessive fluid loss that can lead to shock or death. In addition, the different techniques are associated with complications such as skin or deep tissue damage, lidocaine toxicity, and fluid accumulation in the lungs. Despite the documented risks, the general public has an inflated sense of the benefits and a minimized sense of the risks of plastic surgery.