We live in a world where people are obsessed with getting a little nip here and a lot of tuck there, all in the pursuit of beauty and perfection. But for one woman beauty and perfection came at a price so high it cost some their lives.
Andrea Hayman, 38, calls her breast implants “ticking time-bombs.”
According to Daily Mail, the distressed mother-of-two also wants to encourage women who have had similar breast enhancements to act immediately
She was a victim of the now infamous Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) implants once doctors green-lit the surgery after Hayman complained that her breasts sagged from breast-feeding.
PIP, one of the world’s leading producers of silicone implants, tried to save money by using industrial silicone instead of medical-grade silicone in breast implants and using weak casings that are more likely to rupture or leak than those used in other implants.
The result?
Four women who received the implants now have cancer and two others have died. Because it’s unclear if the cancer was caused to the implants women feel like they are being made to feel that the problems are their fault, so they decided to make their voices heard.
In December of 2011, women who used PIP products held a demonstration outside the French health ministry to demand that the government do more to help the victims, including paying for removal of the implants.
Dominique Poitou, who received a PIP implant during a breast reconstruction after cancer treatment, said:
“It’s very hard to rebuild my life. We feel judged, we feel that we’re not taken seriously because it’s linked to cosmetic surgery. That’s unfair. This scandal is criminal. You wouldn’t implant this type of material into animals, let alone women.”
Hayman has suffered insomnia and hair loss after both of her breast implants ruptured – causing toxins to leak into her body.
And guess what the corporation’s customer service told this long-suffering woman, “I kept calling the Harley Medical Group (where she had the implants fitted) and I kept getting the same answer – that everything was fine,” she said.
Is it really that serious to look good or to feel good about oneself?
Lots of women opt for implants after breast mastectomies or other tragic circumstances lead them to pay for the feeling of femininity and desirability.
Reality TV shows and television and billboard ads all seek to normalize cosmetic procedures, creating the illusion that breast augmentation is a relatively cheap way of boosting one’s self-esteem. But as we see, breast surgery has all the same dangers as any other invasive surgery.
Accordingly, PIP boss Jean-Claude Mas, 72, is currently in prison awaiting trial after failing to pay all of his bail money. He faces charges of causing “involuntary injuries” and “causing bodily harm.”