A Winnipeg woman is warning others after a botched breast implant surgery that she says ruined her health.
“If someone put a meat grinder inside my body and just ground it up for a few weeks, that’s what I feel like,” Nikki Caruthers told 680 CJOB Tuesday.
Caruthers, 29, said she had breast implant surgery at a private clinic Winnipeg in 2013.
“I was told I looked like a boy my whole life,” she said.
“I just felt like I finally wanted to look like all the other girls who actually had breasts.”
She’d spent almost a decade researching before she booked the surgery. Caruthers said she was told there were cosmetic risks, but no health issues to worry about. She was in and out of the clinic in two hours.
“The next day was probably the worst day of my life,” said Caruthers. The next week her Mom had to take care of her because couldn’t use her arms and was swollen.
“I looked like Hulk Hogan,” she said. “Massive, massive reaction. The worst pain I’ve ever felt in my entire life.”
Caruthers said the surgical centre told her this was normal and she should relax and use ice, but two months later she was still in a lot of pain.
She returned to the surgeon, where she said she was told she’d need a touch-up. She got the touch-up in 2015, which is when Caruthers said the surgeon should’ve known to remove the implants.
In 2018, Caruthers had the implants removed and found out she had had a grade three capsular contraction, which she described as the body rejecting the implant and creating scar tissue to try to force it out of the incision. At some point, the implant had ruptured.
Caruthers said she was poisoned by the leaking implant. The result, she said, is that she’s no longer working and sleeps about 18 hours a day. She has a tumor on her liver, and several other strange symptoms such as body tremors.
Listen: Nikki Caruthers speaks to 680 CJOB’s Geoff Currier about her experience:
Although she said the surgeon should have been forthcoming, she blames the manufacturer for the ruptured implant, and said the implants are not as safe as the manufacturers say.
“Why aren’t they telling all these women? It’s not fair,” she said.
Due to her experience, Caruthers is warning women not to get implants.
“Don’t do it, because you will get sick.”
Caruthers is awaiting further tests, and said she hopes to get a proper diagnosis on her symptoms but doesn’t expect to ever regain full health.
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