Salutation From Canada.
Dear Micheline, dear Toni
Here I am! Sorry for my very late answering to your kind offer!! But I assure you, that it is not because I am lazy or I would not very much appreciate to get in better contact with you. Your letters and reports, which were published via Ilenas list, did catch my attention and I do admire your style! (I hope you will understand what I whish to say, but often cannot express in English!!).
You wanted to know more about our support group in Switzerland/Europe? Here are some information in short:
In 1994 it became public in our country, that something with breast implants went wrong in the past. In several papers the class action against Dow Corning, etc. was announced. Before this date, absolutely nothing was known by the victims. 1995, we founded our Support Group. We were convinced, that this group would just have to explain the situation, and doctors and government would react immediately! We concetrated our activities in educating women, doctors and other personalities from politic, and Health Department. Many case reports where published. Our intention to get in a dialogue with all involved parties did not bear fruits for long time. On one hand, we were accused to be marionettes from American women and attorney, which were only greedy for monney! (We had no contacts at all to other countries by this time!) Although we tried not to discuss on this level, all victims were treated very contemptounus! In this phase, many women did make a reargard action and felt in isolation. The rest was paralized! More and more it became difficult to find women, which were prepared to co-operate, which would mean to be exposed and to expose their families too!
Some individuals came into the group and wished to make their privat battle. After making a lot of noise and destruction, they leaved this sinking ship. Two of us did indeed to a lot of very hard and painful work, insisting to find the dialogue with our Department of Health, the Medical Association, medical speicalists from Rheumatology, Neurology, Gynecology, etc. and even Plastic Surgery. By knocking on all these doors and sending information material on and on, we did get the respect and recongnition as a group which has to be taken very serious. Of course, not every party does really want to cooperate with us, but more and more, they cannot oversea our presence on this subject.
We lost one battle here and won one battle there, but we did never loose our reputation again since then. And as we did participate on activities not only in our country, we got more and more requests from international parties. Our cooperation with Germany, Holland and UK was very fruitful at this time. We all did join the Global Petition to Ban Silicone, which was presented in the European Parliament in March 1998. This Petition was accepted a few weeks ago and will be discussed by the Petition Committee in a few weeks. In these days, we are "digging" to receive the chance to speak at this debat and explain (face to face!) that the silicone-tragedy must be stopped now! Please handle this info with care, as we do not want to let know our "enemies" influencing the Committe members by their propaganda!! The Support Group leaders in Germany have many problems in managing the group. Therefore, we are delivering our sisters with all information we have and try to help them to survive as group. It is very, very hard for them, as they had many changes in their managment and therefore a lot of chaos. For us it is nearly not portable, as we have too much work in managing our scope of duties, but we must go through this together.
Instead of sharing the work, I act very often alone as coordinator for all German speaking countries. The next goal is to make a very effectiv campaign with the WHO (World Health Organization) in Geneva. Since we did convice our Medical Association to really check the controversy statements and to take over responsibility for the handling of their members (PS, etc.), we started with first talks in November 1998. As a first step, we are now reviewing the information forms, which shall be given to each woman, who intends to do breast reconstruction or augmentation. (In our country we have 2/3 reconstruction due to medical indication and 1/3 augmentation due to esthetik/cosmetic reasons) As we will not accept their proposal at all, we don't know, whether this cooperation will be over. We must risk this, because we cannot support a policy which does not at least give a woman the chance to make a clear decision by knowing all known and possible risks.
Also as a result of these talks, we got in contact with a scientist from Rheumatology. He is interested to make a scientific research on the health situation, Swiss women are now, after silicone implantation. More details will follow in short. Another attempt did bear fruits: We will have a meeting with the concordat of our national health insurance companies. They will save monney and we will stop the crime! Maybe we can act together?! Still not reached is our demand for educating our doctors, who are treating our women day by day and making wrong diagnosis and sending them to the psychiatry!! But if we do continue our talks with the Medical Association, we hope to make this further very important step. Unless a subject is not discussed seriously, it does not exist in their minds! An we need an recongnized organisation, forcing them to work on this subject!
I hope that you now have an idea on what we are working. Of course, we still do devliver our members with the latest information material and urge them to inform their doctors and to fight for their rights! My collegue is responsible for all contacts with our members and is arranging direct help for them if necessary.
Do you understand the German language? If yes, I could send you some information on our group and also on my "history".
As I have a family with two children (Alexa 18, Reno 15) and two part time jobs, I really have to organize my time very carefully. I can assure you, that I work nearly seven days a week in every free time (which means very often in late evening and the weekend) for the subject of sbi. But sometimes it really don't know whether I'm coming or going! As I first thought to do this effort for half a year / one year only, I was sure being able to manage it. But now I know, that this will go on and on, for a long time. And our work must be made more and more professional, if we want to get acknowledged. So I don't know, how long my energy will last. I just hope, that God will help us all to stand it!! It worked till today!
Your question about the web site: No, we have no site so far! But it is our intention to go into the net, as soon as we have the solution for the finances. Most probably we will make a cooperation with Germany. However, it would be great, if we could leave our address on yours! Could you also publish the addresses from Germany and The Netherland? I would be pleased to offer your proposal to these group leaders. By this occation: Your web site is phantastic! One thing is extraordinary: We now have some information in French!! As you may know, in our country, we speak four languages: German, French, Italian and Romanish. We need information at least in the first three languages for our members. As we did not find women representing the French and Italian speaking part, we had only few information material for them. Is it OK for you, if we print some reports in French from your site? Please let me know. This is all for the moment. As many of my information is not made for public, please handle it confidentially. But I would be very pleased to stay in good contact with you and also inform you about our activities.
I look forward to hear from you from time to time.
Warm regards.
Cosima
Our group address:
SSF Schweiz
Postfach 728
CH-8038 Zurich / Switzerland
Telephone for international calls:
+41 41 440 06 03
Telefax:
+41 41 440 06 14