There were many manufacturers of silicone implants; the four major ones being Dow Corning; Bristol Myers Squibb; 3M and Baxter International.
Until 1976, the FDA had no authority to require safety studies or regulate the sale of these implants. When it was finally granted, the issue was low on their priority list. Breast augmentation rapidly gained popularity and by the mid 1980's the FDA was inundated by complaints and the courts were becoming overwhelmed with individual lawsuits. Nevertheless, the implants remained on the market. In 1991 a reporter covering one of these individual lawsuits against Dow gained access to some corporate documents that detailed salesmens' and scientists' concerns about the safety of the product. The documents confirmed that Dow knew about these concerns; continued to manufacture and market the product but failed to issue any warnings to either the medical community or the end users.
I won't blather on about how a class action lawsuit is created, but the bottom line is, if you have suffered damage due to silicone breast implants, you are most likely already an "absentee plaintiff", represented by a firm who has recruited a large number of plaintiffs in individual lawsuits; convinced them that there is strength in numbers and then applied for and received "class status" from the court. The firm is supposed to make diligent efforts to identify absentee plaintiffs which is tricky where medical records are involved. Sales records might show that Company X sold 1000 pairs of implants to Dr. Y - but if Dr. Y releases confidential medical information - like the fact that you received one pair, he's just asking to be sued for violating doctor-patient confidentiality. Also, these lawsuit take so long, absentee plaintiffs marry; move away; die; go to jail - whatever.
In 1994, these top four manufacturers proposed a $4.3 billion settlement, which the court rejected as insufficient to distribute to more than 400,000 women. And yes, in 1995 Dow-Corning filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and was removed from this particular settlement. But this did not allow them to go skipping off into the sunset. It took years of renegotiation, but Dow has now proposed a 3.2 billion dollar settlement which is expected to be approved by the court - soon - there is a rapidly approaching deadline for inclusion in this suit. Here is the website with information on this class action:
http://www.lieffcabraser.com/sil.htm Please understand I am not endorsing any particular law firm or advising you to become a part of this action! If your implants were not made by Dow, they can probably advise you of other options.
Good luck!
