Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 14:42:37 -0600 (CST)

British Woman & Her Son Develop Scleroderma after Her Breast Implants

Breast Implants Are Killing Me And My 8-YEAR-OLD Son 

AN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD boy could die because of his mum's breast implants. Like thousands of women, Moira Hoffman welcomed the chance to improve her looks by having silicone implants. 

A decade later, left counting the cost of four miscarriages and a series of illnesses brought on after the cosmetic bags leaked, she thought that she was over the worst. But she has now learned her son David's life is in danger after he too was poisoned by the implants. David is having tests for the deadly and incurable condition scleroderma and the signs are not encouraging. 

Initial results show there is every chance of him having contracted the disease that has afflicted his mother after he was exposed to deadly chemicals while in the womb. 

And last night Moira, of Stonehouse, Lanarkshire, told of being forced to live with the trauma of passing the condition on to her son. She said: "This has come as a terrible, terrible shock. I am totally shattered. I just do not know what to do." 

For years, David has suffered the classic symptoms of silicone poisoning, including sore throats and severe sickness. Now experts in America fear he has contracted scleroderma, which is extermely rare in children and affects only 19 people in every million. Tests show he has early symptoms of the condition and his mother is waiting to see Britain's only expert. 

She said: "It's a dreadful situation for a child to be put in. Children should not have to deal with something like this." Moira, 45, became pregnant with David almost two years after having the implants put in in 1988. But while she was carrying him, they began leaking. She consistently had problems before finally having the implants removed two years ago. 

When they operated, horrified doctors found one implant had ruptured so badly it was one third of its original size. Last year, the Record revealed how Moira had four miscarriages in 12 months after having the implants put in, despite previously bearing two children. Fit and healthy before the operation, she has suffered a string of illnesses including chronic fatigue and the skin complaint dermatitis. 

She has already been diagnosed by her rheumatologist as having Raynaud's, which is the first stage of scleroderma. Moira is also suffering all the symptoms of the next stage, including puffy and swollen skin, painful joints and muscles, major digestive problems, extreme fatigue and weight loss. The condition, at its most severe, eventually attacks the major organs of the body, resulting in death. It is not hereditary or contagious. It is extrememly hard to diagnose and there are few experts in the world on the condition. Moira said: "I have been totally traumatised by this and the main problem is that people will not tell me what is going on. "I have to fight for every scrap of information and have just been left to get on with it." 

She said David has been seeing a paediatrician and is waiting to see expert Dr Joel David at the Battle Hospital in Reading. She said: "The only way David could have contracted this is the same way as me - through the leaking breast implants. "It goes to show just how dangerous implants are." 

Breast implants using soya bean oil were banned by the Government on Monday because of fears of a toxic reaction. Moira said: "The Government was right to ban the ones they did, but it wasn't enough. "They need to ban every type of implant until they know they are safe. "It is a horrible, horrible disease. Your face becomes all scarred so you are deformed as well. "Women ought to be aware though that it exists and that it can be contracted through implants. "I am sure there are a lot of women out there who are ill and who are showing all the signs but are not being diagnosed because there is little known about the condition. 

"They probably thought, like me to begin with, that it was just bad luck feeling ill. Well it is not. I have been fighting for years to get a ban on implants and the Government has now taken the first step. "For me it has come too late but I hope others can be saved the trauma and agony I have been through. "Breast implants must be banned. Because of a lack of knowledge and experts in Britain, Moira and David have been tested by doctors in America. A report from Professor Radford Shanklin, of the University of Tennessee, one of the world's foremost experts on the dangers of silicone, said David was sadly showing all the classic early symptoms of scleraderma. 

It reads: "My grave concern is that nearly eight years after removal from his mother's environment of silicone ... David shows ... the more important markers for scleroderma. "Scleroderma is exceedingly rare in children but we have two well developed cases and a third now unfolding of a woman whose implant history spanned twenty years before the birth of the affected children." 

In another report, Dr Shanklin wrote: "David's immune system was specifically affected from the earliest stage of its formation and maturation. "Based on my training, education, and specific experience in these matters I opine, to a reasonable medical certainty, that permanent harm has been caused to both mother and son by silicone devices implanted in her." 

Recently Brenda Meister was awarded £6million in damages in America after contracting scleroderma after her breast implants leaked. Last year hundreds of Scots who became ill after having implants won the right to claim compensation. Following the American court ruling, most stand to receive around £13,000, although some of the worst affected could get around £100,000. American lawyers, acting on behalf of British women, won the settlement for 170,000 women around the world from the largest makers of silicone gel implants, the Dow Corning Company. Monday's Government ban on the use of soya bean implants will affect around 5000 women in the UK, around 300 of which are Scots. Last night a spokeswoman for the Silicone Support Group UK said: "Women in the UK have again been used as guinea pigs and it is not acceptable. "We have submitted thousands of names of women who have suffered but we have been ignored. "But we will continue to fight to raise awareness of the dangers of implants." 

DISEASE OF THE IMMUNE SYSTEM WHICH CAN BE FATAL SCLERODERMA is a rare disease of the immune system, blood vessels and connective tissue. In severe cases it cripples major internal organs and can be fatal. While it is treatable, there is no cure. It is characterised by inflammation of the skin although other symptoms include sensitivity to cold, swelling of the hands and feet, pain and stiffness in joints and muscles, thickening of the skin, dental problems and weight loss. There are various forms of scleroderma but it is still an unknown quantity in medical circles and the causes are unknown. 

The condition causes an excess of collagen, the most abundant connective tissue fibre in the body. The surplus is deposited in the skin and internal organs, affecting the way they operate and causing scarring. The condition is also thought to cause antibodies to attack healthy tissue. Around 19 people in a million are affected a year, with women three times more at risk than men. 

There are two main forms of scleroderma, localised and generalised, which is the more severe. Localised mainly affects the skin and leads to a reduction in joint movement and hardening the walls of the arteries. It can be controlled with drugs. But victims of generalised scleroderma suffer extreme tiredness, head-aches and depression. Diagnosis is difficult as the symptoms are common to other conditions. Treatment is usually in the form of anti-inflammatory medication and hypertensive medicines.