Mumbai victim of PIP fraud reveals her terror.

MUMBAI: When France's biggest court trial began last week with 5,000 women fighting the world's murkiest medical con job, there was an echo in an upper middle-class household in Santa Cruz. Arti Shah, a 51-year-old homemaker, shared the physical and emotional suffering that these petitioners—including some breast cancer survivors—must have been through for unknowingly buying a substandard breast implant.

For a decade until 2010, a French company named Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) had sold breast implants filled with industrial-grade silicone instead of surgery-grade to 3 lakh women across 65 countries. The fraud came to light in 2010 after British health officials noticed a high rate of rupture among the PIP implants.

Her trauma continued till this January as India has no records to indicate if PIP implants were sold in the country. "I wasn't even aware that I had been given PIP implants," Arti told TOI.

However, foreign patients had been promised by their governments in 2010 that they would partially or completely finance a repeat surgery.

Arti found out in January that her implant had ruptured. "I went to Seven Hills Hospital in Andheri to enquire about the reason for the pain and lumpiness in my right breast for over eight years,'' said Arti. Plastic surgeon Dr Abraham Zachariah immediately recommended an MRI scan that showed a rupture. "It was only on removing the implants that I realized that they were the scandalous PIP ones,'' said the doctor, who has now fitted new US-made implants for Arti.

Arti thereafter went through agonizing moments, fearing that the leaked-out silicone could cause cancer. "I feared the worst and went through a battery of tests to rule out things. My daughters and husband too spent terrified moments,'' she said.

She even went to the suburban hospital where her first breast augmentation was done. "The hospital said decade-old medical reports had possibly been destroyed. I even met the first doctor but he refused to say anything. I thus reached a dead-end in investigating how I got such substandard implants,'' said Arti. She feels she paid a heavy price for doing something that is frowned upon in the Indian society.

PIP records became popular because they were cheaper than American FDA-approved ones. "I remember PIP vendors in Mumbai trying to sell the implants a decade back. I was uncomfortable with the steep price difference. How could this company sell implants at Rs 13,000 when others were over Rs 22,000?'' asked senior plastic surgeon Dr Anil Tibrewala from Hinduja Hospital. After the PIP scandal broke out in 2010, he was flooded with calls from patients wanting to know the name of the implant he had used for them. "Women were worried. And rightly so,'' added Dr Tibrewala.

Another plastic surgeon said that only those doctors who wanted to earn higher margins on their operations would have used PIP implants. "You bill the patient for Rs 22,000 even though you got the implant for 10,000 less,'' he said.

Only 50,000 breast augmentation surgeries were performed in 2010. ``But the number could double within a few years because of the growing degree of body-consciousness among Indians,'' said Dr Tibrewala.

But Arti wants this change to be accompanied with greater consumer awareness. "It's the doctor's duty to tell women about the plus points we well as drawbacks of an implant. Moreover, women should be ready to ask more questions if they want to go under the knife,'' she said.

Dr Zachariah said that women who have undergone a breast augmentation surgery should as a rule undergo an MRI scan to check for ruptures. The US FDA recommends such checks once in every two years, he said.

Woman feared cancer link to silicone leak

Arti Shah's trauma of a failed breast implant surgery was more than similar foreign patients who had been promised by their governments in 2010 that they would partially or completely finance a repeat surgery.

Arti found out in January that her implant had ruptured. "I went to Seven Hills Hospital to enquire about the reason for the pain in my right breast for over eight years," she said. Plastic surgeon Dr Abraham Zachariah immediately recommended an MRI scan that showed a rupture. "It was only on removing the implants that I realized that they were the scandalous PIP ones," said the doctor, who has now fitted new US-made implants for Arti. She thereafter went through agonizing moments, fearing that the leaked-out silicone could cause cancer.

She even went to the suburban hospital where her first breast augmentation was done. "The hospital said decade-old reports had possibly been destroyed. I even met the first doctor but he refused to say anything," she said.

PIP records became popular because they were cheaper than American FDA-approved ones. "I remember PIP vendors in Mumbai trying to sell the implants a decade back. I was uncomfortable with the steep price difference. How could this company sell implants at Rs 13,000 when others were over Rs 22,000?'' asked senior plastic surgeon Dr Anil Tibrewala from Hinduja Hospital.

After the PIP scandal broke out in 2010, he was flooded with calls from patients wanting to know the name of the implant he had used for them. "Women were worried. And rightly so,'' added Dr Tibrewala. Another plastic surgeon said that only those doctors who wanted to earn higher margins on their operations would have used PIP implants. "You bill the patient for Rs 22,000 even though you got the implant for 10,000 less,'' he said.

Only 50,000 breast augmentation surgeries were performed in 2010. "But the number could double soon because of the growing degree of body-consciousness," said Dr Tibrewala.

But Arti wants this change to be accompanied with greater consumer awareness. "It's the doctor's duty to tell women about the plus points we well as drawbacks of an implant. Moreover, women should be ready to ask more questions if they want to go under the knife,'' she said.

Dr Zachariah said women who have undergone a breast augmentation surgery should as a rule undergo an MRI scan to check for ruptures.

Cup of woes

Industrial-grade silicone is used as sealants in various industries, while medical-grade silicone is used for body implants

French company Poly Implant Prothese sold breast implants filled with industry-grade silicone. PIP founder Jean-Claude Mas is on trial for aggravated fraud

PIP implants were cheap, but ruptured more frequently than normal ones

Over 3 lakh women, including breast cancer survivors, in 65 countries got PIP implants

Of them, 4,000 reported ruptures

PIP exported 80% of its implants, with half going to Latin America.

Source HERE