Plaintiffs score victories in breast implant cases.

Two women, separated by nearly 3,000 miles but joined by similar debilitating health problems purportedly caused by leaking or ruptured breast implants, now have something else in common. They've both won legal victories against the companies that the women say failed to warn that the implants' silicone gel filling could cause lifelong illnesses.

Late last year, the Nevada Supreme Court upheld a $4.1 million compensatory damages award against Dow Chemical Co. in a case alleging the defendant had negligently tested the silicone used in Charlotte Mahlum's breast implants, which were surgically removed in 1993 after one ruptured. (Dow Chemical Co. v. Mahlum, No. 28600, 1998 WL 909756 (Nev. Dec. 31, 1999).) The court disallowed a $10 million punitive damages award, finding insufficient evidence to support the jury's finding of fraudulent concealment.

Less than a week later, a federal jury awarded $10 million to Washington, D.C., lawyer Brenda Meister. She alleged that leaking silicone from implants she received in 1977, which were removed in 1991, caused her to develop scleroderma, a disease that affects connective tissues. (Meister v. MEC, No. 9226660 (D.D.C. Jan. 4, 1999).) The implants were manufactured by Medical Engineering Corp., which was acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. in 1982.

Both women suffer from crippling illnesses that set in shortly after they received their implants. Mahlum has been diagnosed with an atypical autoimmune disorder similar to multiple sclerosis. Her symptoms include blotching of the skin, eye and mouth dryness, aching muscles, hair loss, numbness, and seizures.

Meister's scleroderma--also an autoimmune disorder--has caused skin hardening, swelling in her hands, and large calcium deposits in her back and hips.

The successes in these cases follow, with few exceptions, a string of defeats for plaintiffs in breast implant cases throughout the country. According to a statement issued by Bristol-Myers, the company hasn't lost a breast implant case tried before a jury in six years.

And courts in California, Michigan, and New York have dismissed more than 4,000 cases against Dow Chemical, finding no basis for holding the company liable for injuries caused by implants. Dow Chemical never manufactured implants, but it did test the silicone later used in implants manufactured by Dow Corning Corp., which is jointly owned by Dow Chemical and Corning Corp.

Despite this history, one of Meister's attorneys, Robert Weltchek of Baltimore, said he wasn't surprised by the jury's verdict in his client's case, which he said was "compelling" and one of the few his firm has agreed to take.

Weltchek said the jury was likely impressed by the testimony of Meister's treating rheumatologist, who had never testified in a breast implant case before. "He was not a hired gun. He was a guy in the trenches--well respected, well credentialed--who just happened to become her treating rheumatologist. He came to his conclusions after six or seven years of dealing with [Meister's] scleroderma," Weltchek said.

Geoffrey White, one of Mahlum's attorneys, attributed the Nevada court's opinion to its "great respect for the jury system." Mahlum's was the first implant case against Dow Chemical to go to a jury, White said.

The safety of breast implants has been hotly debated for years. Several studies, all discounted as flawed and biased by plaintiffs' attorneys, have shown no link between silicone and the systemic diseases--like Meister's and Mahlum's--that thousands of implant recipients claim to have.

The latest study, by a panel of researchers appointed by U.S. District Court Judge Sam Pointer, who is overseeing discovery in the federal multidistrict breast implant litigation, reached a similar result. Although the study was released during Meister's trial, the judge in that case declined to admit it because the panelists have not yet been deposed.

"The report was not intended to be used as evidence in front of juries. It's not a closed book on the issue. There is much to do in terms of discovery--depositions to be taken--much to do," Weltchek noted.

White agreed, adding that the findings are not likely to withstand scrutiny. "The plaintiffs can't wait to take the depositions of the panel people," he said. "Once the depositions are concluded, the panel's report will be seriously undermined."

Weltchek also doesn't think the study will change plaintiffs' chances of success in pending breast implant cases because of the overwhelming evidence that silicone is harmful. "It belies common sense that you have all of these women with reputable doctors, that tens of thousands of women have problems that are related to silicone, that the defendants have spent billions of dollars defending cases, that the FDA has banned silicone implants, that there is nothing there," Weltchek said.

Thousands of breast implant plaintiffs are still waiting for their day in court. And Dow Corning, which has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, recently filed a reorganization plan in hopes of settling pending claims.

In the meantime, Mahlum's and Meister's battles go on. Dow Chemical filed a motion for reconsideration, and Bristol-Myers recently filed a "whole host of posttrial motions," according to Weltchek.