2023-06-07 12:03:26
The French Justice ratifies the responsibility of certifying companies and recognizes compensation of an average of 5,000 euros for the 40,000 women affected worldwide by a control system that fails
Marina Muoz is one of the more than 400 carriers of a breast implant made of industrial silicone. The French Justice has just recognized compensation of about 5,000 euros on average for the 40,000 women affected worldwide. “This money means nothing to me, what I want is to recover my health,” says this young woman.
This Murcian mother of two children decided to have a mammoplasty 16 years ago. She was 19 and had a huge complex about having little chest. “It was very expensive to get implants”laments Marina in an interview with Servimedia, who is now facing the aftermath of that intervention. “I feel cheated and betrayed. I can’t understand how a product like this got into Spain and they put a quality seal on it.”
“As soon as I put on the prosthesis, I realized that something was wrong.” “I noticed that I was starting to get sick,” says Marina. She went to the doctor and after undergoing several diagnostic imaging tests, they confirmed that the implants she had “were absolutely destroyed,” recalls the young woman. “I had silicone infiltrated nodes and I had to go through the operating room up to three times,” she laments.
court battle
Marina complains that in this long legal battle “the public administration has turned its back on her.” “I am the only person in Spain who has been recognized with an inflammatory autoimmune disease induced by adjuvant,” she explains, that is, caused by the application of oily substances. “I carry the industrial silicone spread all over my body and since they are microparticles it is impossible to clean them completely.”
Despite having a recognized disability and being forced to follow immunoglobulin treatment for life, the young woman did not achieve permanent disability. “I cannot lead a normal work or family life. In fact, my mother comes to help me to take care of my two children,” she admits. “I want to work and I want to get my life back from before and not depend on painkillers and tranquilizers,” she says angrily. “My life has been destroyed and everything is very difficult for me, even sleeping because of the pain I have at night.”
In Spain there are more than 400 women who have been fighting for the court to recognize that the French company Poly Implant Prothose (PIP) has been manufacturing and marketing these “absolutely harmful to health” prostheses since 2002, Rebeca Martínez, a lawyer from the BcvLEX law firm, assures in an interview with Servimedia that represents the group of affected women.
He Court of Cassation ratifies the responsibility of companiescertifiers stating, among other things, that “TV Rhineland (…) breached its obligations of control, prudence and vigilance in the exercise of its professional mission, [y] the professional responsibility of TV Rhineland France it is proven”.
Only in Spain will the responsible company have to face compensation for more than two million euros. “Obviously, the amount is different depending on whether there has been some kind of psychological or physical health problem, such as a simple rupture or more serious cases that have led to the appearance of tumors, apparently related to this industrial substance,” he points out. The lawyer. “At least the compensation will give them peace of mind and all this time it will have been worth it because since 2010 these women have been living with a time bomb.”
Expert opinion pending
He falsified breast implants scandal broke out in 2010when it became known that the French company PIP had been marketing implants since 2002 made with “an industrial gel that is obviously much cheaper and extremely dangerous to health”, asserts the lawyer, “instead of using silicone authorized for medical products”.
The total number of people affected in Spain and many others affected in other European countries are today in luck, although the legal battle is not over. “They are victims of a situation that they did not deserve,” says Rebeca Martínez.
These women will still have to go through an appraisal process to document the damages caused and the economic damages related to the implantation of that specific brand. The lawyer insists that “in some countries there are carriers who do not even know that they are wearing these prostheses because there is no protocol like in Spain.”
The more than 400 women implanted with these defective prostheses “have endured the pressure of a legal proceedings that have lasted for more than ten years and what remains”, says Rebeca Martínez. They still have a way to go, but “they are strong, they are brave women,” emphasizes her lawyer.
In addition to the Spanish women affected, there are some 40,000 women with PIP prostheses throughout the world (French, British, German, Czech, Italian, South African, etc.).
The recognition of the French high court opens the door to compensation that will range from 5,000 euros, for all those people who did not suffer side effects, up to the total amount to which the consequences of implant them with prostheses made of industrial silicone.
After the PIP fraud was discovered, thousands of users filed lawsuits in various courts seeking compensation against the maker PIPits insurers and against TUV Rheinland France and TUV Rheinland LGA, which had participated since 1997 as certification bodies of these prostheses for not complying with sanitary regulations.
After the first lawsuits were filed in 2014, and since then several Appellate courts have ruled on the responsibility of certifying bodieswhich was appealed to the Supreme Court both by the two companies mentioned and by the plaintiffs.
Although the legal battle is not over, these resolutions from the highest French jurisdiction pave the way for the affected women.
According to the criteria of
The Trust Project
Know more
#Supreme #Court #France #recognizes #compensation #million #Spaniards #defective #breast #prostheses