My name is Sandra Laliberte, I have decided to write my story since I am a implant and tram flap victim. I hate that word, but it's the only one that comes to mind.

If I can help one woman decide not to go through this I will be happy!

August 11, 1989 I had a double sub-cutaneous mastectomy, with immediate reconstruction DOW implants. This I was told would be beautiful, even the nurses said I would look great. Now when I think back to the time I was admitted, I should of ran out of there, because the nurses on the ward had to ask me what a sub-cutaneous mastectomy was because they had never heard of this one before, I found out this is because this type of mastectomy was not being done much here in the past 10 years. Being 28 at the time I never thought to much about it. WHAT A MISTAKE!!

I woke up in horrible pain, when the bandages were removed I went into shock, it was a mess!

The implant was riding high up towards my neck I had a incision from the nipple running up towards my neck from the top of the breast, it was bruised and purple with some redness. It was ugly, not anything like they said it would be like. My Plastic surgeon ordered a intern to come in and force the implant down, it was excruciating! I got very angry.

The nurses kept getting mad at me and telling me to use my arms to get myself out of bed, my Doctor had to make notes in my chart to not have me do any arm movements at all.

After I was released I found out the surgeon had cut me by accident as they say, or he said it tore, the College of Physicians and Surgeons found in there investigation it was not caused by what he said but done by a sharp surgical dissection

I sued both Doctors. Settled out of court with the one and the Plastic Surgeon got off with his part in it.

The implant by October was so infected and hard it almost burst out through the chest wall, it was removed and for some time I had to go to the hospital and have the breast cavity drained, I remember stuff oozing from my nipple and my Doctor told me it was only milk, I had a hystectomy years before so I knew it wasn't milk.

When he removed the implant he threw it to me and said put it in your bra for shape and then left.

I ended up with a dumbbell deformity on the right breast and this was surgically removed and left alot of scarring, after 15 operations, since my mastectomy and failed implants, capsulotomy operations, skin grafting for a nipple that had gotten necrosis so bad and died, and fell off my chest started looking like a map of scars. I finally realized that the implants were my problem they weren't safe like the Doctors were telling me.

The one implant I took home I remember putting it in the bathroom, and the next morning there was silicone on my taps and sink this I could not remove.

I had an implant rupture, and finally I found a surgeon who would remove them and not make me replace them. He had to do a simple mastectomy to get rid of the skin etc. I also had to have my lymphnodes on the right side removed because of how enlarged they were. That is also on the same side as the implant that had ruptured.

I remember feeling so alone and not knowing who to talk to, or where to get help. When I had the implants put in I had never heard of implants.Then I met a lawyer who told me about the problems with the implants and that other women were having the same problems this came as some help to me,because I finally knew what my problems were. As up until then I knew all the Doctors were lying to me.

I have multiple problems now, auto immune, myalgia, meniers disease.

A recent MRI showing lesions in my brain was done, only because I went to Calgary and paid for a private MRI to be done because no one would listen to me about my symptoms, this also infurates me that in Canada we can't get the tests neccessary and have to resort to paying for them ourselves, in this situation I am glad I did it. I have now as of November 2001 been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and placed on beta seron injections, which I inject every other night, and also put on Baclofen for bad cramping and pain in my legs and feet I have memory problems.

Weakness problems, awful fatigue, where I can sleep for hours, or the opposit and never fall asleep.

Irritable bowel I was diagnosed with. A lot of chest pain radiating to the rest of my body, severe headaches, numbness in my arms, hands and feet. Then there's the problems from having a double TRAM FLAP OPERATION.

I was told to see a P.S. due to the concaving in my chest, and to see about the tramprocedure where they use your own tissue, so I did. I was told it could be done and that it would be a long haul recovery wise, It took almost a year to recover from this to the point I could function. It was the worst pain I have ever experienced, and would not want to see someone else go through, mine was a bilateral tram, I needed a blood transfusion after becuase I couldn't stay awake, I could of just died then from the pain, I am stressing a lot about the pain because it was awful.

I was told I would have an added bonus of a tummy tuck, as you can see from the photo on this tram page there is no added bonus of a tummy tuck.

I had the incision open up in the hospital this took months to heal and close, and needed to be soaked with saline solution and an antibiotic cream applied to the area, which resulted in me getting a yeas infection at the area of the incision.

I went with my Dad to Oregon to recuperate, and he ended up bringing me back to Canada because of problems I had. I had really bad pain, it felt like something was in there, or had ripped.

Walking was awful, getting out of bed was difficult and still is.

I now have to roll out of bed and it still hurts. I have alot of pain still in the abdomen and chest area and this procedure was done in 1998. My abdomen is really bulging now, I was told I have diffuse weakness of the entire area. Kind of like one huge hernia. I can't walk very far because of bad pain in the back, shoulders, abdominal area, and my legs, I get a lot of cramping in my legs I was told it was from the lympnodes but now know it is from the MS. I am booked now for my 18th operation to do some repair work on me. I have bulging under the breasts, not sure what that is! And then some repair to the abdomen area. I was told the only way to fix the abdomen would be to remove all the mesh and put new in, this I will not do, as I am already disabled to the point where I will not allow them to make me worse.

This operation was never intended for the breast area, it was used in the war to reconstruct abdomens There was a Doctor in the states who decided to take that procedure and change it to reconstruct breasts.

It amazes me how Doctors think that ripping our guts out and removing all the rectus muscle is great in there eyes. My question is, if it is so great why is that muscle there then. I never fully understood the consequences of having this done I only wish I had of talked with someone who had this done. Because I would never of done it. This is not something you recuperate from in a couple of months and then life goes on. It is not something like Oh! don't lift more than 5 or 10 pounds like we are told, or don't do sit ups or abdominal stuff, it is worse.But at least my Doctor told me those things.

I am now disabled due to all the procedures I have had done, and I am now on Canada Pension disability.

Being 40 and disabled is not a nice thing, there is lots of consequences to our letting these Doctors treat us like Guinea Pigs, it affects all aspects of our lives not just physically, and emotionally, but relationships with our families, husbands, or boyfriends. I am so ugly and mutilated I can't even imagine who would want me for the rest of there life. I don't even want me.

In December 1998 I along with the Merchant Law Group from Regina Saskatchewan filed the first ever class action lawsuit against the Canadian Federal Government for the unsafe breast implants, to date nothing to much has happened because of stalling tactics. Other Provinces since my suit was filed are thinking or trying to follow suit also. I feel this will end up the same as the tainted blood lawsuit, hopefully I will live long enough to see this completed.