Dow fights judgment over breast implants

Larry Henry

Thursday, April 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A Las Vegas woman should be awarded a multimillion-dollar judgment from the company responsible for ruptured silicone breast implants that made her sick, a Boston attorney told the state Supreme Court.

"We have a 47-year-old woman who must wear diapers," Fredric Ellis, representing Charlotte Mahlum, told the court during oral arguments Wednesday.

Mahlum, a former resident of Elko County who recently moved to Las Vegas, attended the hearing. She sat silently on the first row, clutching a metal cane.

Dow Chemical attorneys argued that the conglomerate isn't liable for Mahlum's illnesses because a subsidiary that manufactured and tested the implants didn't indicate they might be dangerous.

Dow Chemical maintains that women are suing them because the company has money. The subsidiary, Dow Corning, is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy following more than 19,000 lawsuits.

Dow Corning manufactured the silicone-gel breast implants Mahlum received in 1985 at a Minnesota hospital following a double mastectomy.

The Supreme Court did not make a ruling Wednesday.

While Dow Chemical has warded off suits in some states, a Washoe District Court in 1995 ruled against the company and awarded Mahlum $14 million. Dow Chemical has appealed that ruling to the state Supreme Court.

"There's absolutely not a shred of evidence that anyone at Dow Chemical knew they weren't safe," said Michele Odorizzi, a Chicago attorney representing the chemical company. Dow Chemical also has retained Thomas "Spike" Wilson, a Reno lawyer who lost a congressional race in November. Wilson did not represent Dow Chemical in the first Mahlum trial.

Odorizzi said scientific evidence has not concluded that liquid silicone causes disease.

"People do get sick, and not everything is the result of a toxic chemical," she said.

Ellis said Dow Chemical has conducted studies since the 1940s proving that liquid silicone is hazardous. Tests have determined that the fluid migrates in the body, he said.

"You don't need to be a rocket scientist to know what's going to happen when it gets to the heart, the liver, the brain," Ellis said.

He also said Dow Chemical has known since the 1960s that liquid silicone affects the immune system. Ellis said Mahlum has suffered numerous immune disorders and has had "brain lesions" and "rashes all over her body."

He also argued that Mahlum is entitled to the money because she was "disfigured" when the ruptured implants were removed. At various times during the hearing, Ellis held up a sample implant and showed color photographs of Mahlum before and after the implant removal.

Odorizzi argued that the company's early tests were conducted when silicone was an industrial product used in pesticides and other items.

She said Dow Chemical didn't manufacture breast implants or test liquid silicone's "long-term" effect on the human body. Those tests were conducted by Dow Corning, whose officials never alerted the parent company to any problem, she said.

After the trial, reporters asked Mahlum about her health.

"In the past year and a half, it's gotten worse," she said.

She said she continues to wear diapers and battles severe headaches and dizziness. She said she fell 10 weeks ago and broke both feet.

Mahlum recently moved to Las Vegas because warm weather helps her cope with the illnesses. "It's too cold in Elko," she said.

When she received the implants, she was not told they might cause harm, she said.

"I was told they weren't dangerous," Mahlum said. "I was told they would last a lifetime."

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