France - 
Article published the Friday 25 November 2011 - Latest update : Friday 25 November 2011

Breast implants allegedly behind French woman's death

Defective silicone breast implants believed to have caused woman's death
FDA/Wikicommons

By RFI

The French justice system is to investigate a breast implant manufacture after the death of a 53-year-old woman from lymphatic cancer on Monday in the southern French city of Marseille.

 

Doctors say Edwige Ligoneche may have died after the gel used to fill the implants leaked into her system.

This is not the first time implants produced by Poly Implants Prothèses, PIP, have raised concerns.

The company uses non-medical silicone for its products which is believed to seep through the implant into surrounding tissue causing the formation of small cysts.

The silicone also weakens the implant making it more likely to split.

PIP has sold over 300,000 of its implants around the world over the past 12 years - 30,000 alone in France.

In 2009, the French government agency responsible for medical equipment safety standards, Afssaps, received a number of complaints about the implants.

A year earlier, women in England complained their implants had ruptured soon after their operation and had decided to sue the company.

Afssaps found that 10 per cent of the company’s implant’s ruptured within a year. On average, implants should last over 10 years.

Following the discovery, the company withdrew its products from the market, but thousands of woman are known to still have the defective implants.

In 2010, the company’s founder, Jean-Michel Mas, was detained by police and could appear before a criminal court, along with other company employees.
 

tags: France - Health - Justice - Marseille
Related articles
React to the article
Commentez cette article en tapant votre message dans la zone de texte. Le nombre de caractères est limité à 1500 ou moins.
(1) Reaction

what you need to know before going under the knife

i always advise my friends to do extensive research before they finally decide on any cosmetic procedure, because I've read about those nasty side effects that are just plain gross to fatal. If you have a particular clinic in mind i think it is best that you check out how they perform the procedure or what kind of materials they are using. like in this site for example, www.esteemstudio.com.au you can see that they gave general information on everything involved in the process. use your widest resource, which is the internet, to find the best clinics who can guarantee not only impressive results but your general safety!!

Close