Leigh woman seeking payout for breast implant leak costs (From Echo)

Leigh woman seeking payout for breast implant leak costs

1:00pm Wednesday 11th January 2012 in Leigh By Christine Sexton

A WOMAN is taking legal action against a doctor who gave her breast implants which later ruptured and cost £4,500 to replace.

Tracy Davies, 28, picked the surgeon after seeing him giving advice on cosmetic surgery on a TV programme.

During a £3,500 operation at the Welbeck Hospital, in London, in December 2003, he increased her 32AA bust to a 32D, but in 2010, she began to have problems with her right breast implant.

She later discovered she had been given the potentially toxic PIP implants, which are thought to be prone to rupturing.

Mrs Davies of Elmsleigh Drive, Leigh, said: “Everything was alright at first, but then I started to get shocking pains and twinges.

“I thought it was just what happened with implants, but then in 2010, my right breast swelled up to double its size and I went to my doctor.

“He thought it was just an infection and it did go down, but then it swelled again. In 2011, I found a lump under my arm.”

A subsequent MRI scan confirmed the implant had ruptured and leaked into lymph nodes in Mrs Davies’s arm.

Mrs Davies, a mobile beauty therapist and dog walker, discovered she had been given PIP implants and was advised to have them removed.

However, the doctor had left the country and the Welbeck Hospital denied any responsibility, so she was left to find the £4,500 cost of removing and replacing them herself.

She said: “I thought about just having them removed and not replaced, but surgeons at the BMI private hospital, in Southend, advised against it because it would have left excess skin.

“I had them done originally because I had a fairly good bottom, but a flat chest and wanted to be more in proportion.

“When I had them replaced I took the opportunity to enlarge them and I am now a 32F.”

Mrs Davies has instructed solicitors to try to seek compensation from the surgeon.

Lydia Bruniges, hospital manager at the Welbeck, said: “This patient had her operation at the Welbeck, but had entered into a contract with another doctor.

“In the cosmetic sector, many doctors don’t have their own hospital, so they rent other facilities.

“During the operation the nursing care is our concern.

“We are responsible for that, but everything else is strictly down to the surgeon.

“We wouldn’t know what implants a surgeon was going to use because they bring their own. We offered Mrs Davies a free consultation.”

Despite her experience, Mrs Davies added: “I wouldn’t advise other women not to have implants, but I would say find out what sort of implants you are having and do your research.

“I found out afterwards women had been complaining about these PIP implants on internet forums.

“If I had discovered that before I wouldn’t have gone ahead with it.”