Back in 2011, Anne Ziegenhorn of Shalimar, Florida, began experiencing unsettling symptoms — weight gain, vision loss, and sores all over her body. Doctors misdiagnosed her several times, WHAM 13 reports, until Ziegenhorn found breast implant specialist Dr. Susan Kolb, who realized Ziegenhorn's silicone implants had begun molding in her body.
Ziegenhorn only had her implants for two years when the symptoms began. According to the FDA, 20 percent of women have their implants replaced every eight to 10 years as the "longer you have breast implants, the more likely it is that complications will occur and you will need to have them removed."
When Kolb removed Ziegenhorn's implants, she found them rotted. Though it's unclear how the implants developed so much mold — Kolb attributes other cases like these to defective valves in the implant itself — Ziegenhorn's symptoms were caused by the mold itself and silicone sickness.
"My experience in doing this for thirty years is that eventually everybody will become ill from their breast implants, unless they die sooner from something else," Dr. Kolb told WHAM. Another one of Kolb's patients, Amanda Gilcrease, has been posting on Ziegenhorn's Facebook sharing her similarly scary experience.
Gilcrease also told WHAM her terrifying symptoms (which were very similar to Ziegenhorn's) stopped when Kolb removed her implants: "All the neurological symptoms ... the burning, numbing, stabbing, shooting, electrical shocking pains throughout my body went away immediately."
Ziegenhorn has created The Implant Truth Survivors (or TITS) Committee to help educate other women about how dangerous breast implants can be.
Follow Tess on Twitter.
Tess Koman covers breaking (food) news, opinion pieces, and features on larger happenings in the food world. She oversees editorial content on Delish. Her work has appeared on Cosmopolitan.com, Elle.com, and Esquire.com.
