'My boob implants swelled to the size of my head... then EXPLODED!' says actress who appeared in Corrie and Hollyoaks

An actress who appeared in Coronation Street and Hollyoaks has spoken of the horrific pain she felt when her PIP breast implant swelled to the size of her head - and then exploded.

Vanessa Halstead, who played a cocktail waitress as an extra in Coronation Street, got implants to help boost her glamour modelling career. But she was shocked when her right DD breast suddenly started expanding eight years after breast enlargement surgery.

Soon she was struggling to move, and after having an ultrasound she discovered her breast implant had ruptured.

PIP scandal:  The blue bowl on the right shows Miss Halstead's implant which was still in one piece. On the left is the exploded implant

She has now launched a Facebook and Twitter campaign, Justice 4 PIP Victims, calling for tighter regulation of the cosmetic surgery industry to prevent similar scandals.

Miss Halstead is also providing a much-needed support network for thousands of other women with PIP implants who are living in fear, giving them advice on how to get implants removed and replaced.

'I went for a spray tan one day and noticed my right breast was really swollen and almost the size of my head,' said the 29-year-old from Burnley, Lancashire.

More...

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'The next day I set off for a jog and the pain was unbearable. It grew steadily worse and by the end of the week I couldn’t lift my arm and was struggling to move about.'

Miss Halstead, who now runs a promotions business, had implants to boost her from a B or C cup to a DD eight years ago

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2092084/My-boob-implants-swelled-size-head--EXPLODED-says-actress-appeared-Corrie-Hollyoaks.html#ixzz1kbRsDGtI

Breast Implant Scandal Shows Regulators in Dark on Risk

Long before the latest global breast implant scare, American health officials were toying with the idea of building a registry that would track patients with implants.

The registry would give a better idea of the number of complications over time, such as rupture or infection.

But to this day, none exists for the world's largest healthcare market, which often serves as a global model for regulatory practice. Some individual countries in Europe have made their own attempts but with only limited success, and there is no continent-wide registry.

In the wake of the current scandal surrounding France's Poly Implant Prothese (PIP), which used industrial grade silicone instead of medical grade silicone in implants placed surgically in some 300,000 women worldwide, advocates for a registry are again pushing the idea.

The French government has advised the 30,000 women in France who bought the implants to have them removed and governments in several other countries, such as Britain and Brazil, have asked women to visit their doctors for checks.

"If we had had registries, we would have known years ago if it's true that PIP implants break sooner," said Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Research Center for Women & Families. "We would have known if Mentor ones break sooner or later than Allergan's," she said, referring to the two largest makers of breast implants.

There were almost 400,000 breast enlargement or reconstruction procedures in the United States in 2010, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. That includes silicone and saline implants.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has relied on company-funded efforts to track the safety of implants since allowing the silicone versions back on the market in 2006. It had banned silicone implants in 1992 after some U.S. women said the devices leaked and made them chronically ill.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/12/30/breast-implant-scandal-shows-regulators-in-dark-on-risk/#ixzz1i2d6Awsd