A jury recommended awarding $25 million in damages to a woman who had a partial mastectomy after her breast implant ruptured.
Pamela Jean Johnson, 45, had sought $64.3 million but was satisfied after jurors in state District Court read the verdict Wednesday in Texas' first civil lawsuit to go to trial against a silicone breast implant maker."There's no price you can put on this," she said.
In her lawsuit, she contended Medical Engineering Corp., and its parent company, Bristol Myers Squibb Co., produced and marketed implants they knew were defective or had been insufficiently tested.
She underwent surgery for MEC implants in 1976 and 1989. The first set ruptured in 1989, and Johnson's doctor, in attempting to remove the ruptured shell and silicone, performed a partial mastectomy.
She contended she was permanently disfigured and contracted auto-immune disease, which has caused her headaches, fatigue and joint pain.
Defense attorney W.J. Mays had argued the company did thorough testing of its product.