Mother and son almost killed by 'mouldy' breast implants

A woman has escaped death after a doctor found it was mouldy breast implants that were making her and her breastfeeding son severely ill.

Anne Ziegenhorn, from Florida, claims she was misdiagnosed for years after doctors failed to pinpoint the cause of her illness.

It was only after noticing one of her breasts had changed shape that Ms Ziegenhorn saw an implant specialist who identified that she had been suffering from silicone sickness for years.

Ms Ziegenhorn's health problems began in 1998, six months after she switched from silicone to saline implants. Over the next decade she suffered with fatigue, weight gain, sores on her body and loss of vision. Short-term memory loss even led her to fear that she had early-onset Alzheimer's.

Ms Ziegenhorn's young son became critically ill while she was breastfeeding him, a direct result, she claims, of the toxic implants.

"My breastfeeding caused my kids to be ill," she told Mail Online. "My son, at 19 months old, had a severe kidney infection. He almost died."

After a barrage of fruitless medical tests, Ms Ziegenhorn turned to implant specialist Dr Susan Kolb, who advised her to take antibiotics as her left implant was covered in mould and bacteria.

A mammogram also revealed that her right implant had ruptured, which is what was causing the silicone sickness.

Dr Kolb believes that health complications are an inevitability when it comes to breast implants.

"My experience in doing this for 30 years is that eventually everybody will become ill from their breast implants, unless they die sooner from something else," Dr Kolb said.

Now that she has had both implants removed, Ms Ziegenhorn has made it her mission to warn other women about the potential risks of breast implants.

She now campaigns to raise awareness and has started a group called The Implant Truth Survivors Committee to help women in similar situations.