Mara Keistling
Posted on 07/03/2005 1:44:50 AM PDT by onyx
U.S. experts warn of risky silicone 'pump parties'
By Marty Graham REUTERS
7:06 a.m. July 2, 2005
SAN DIEGO – A dangerous underground of "pump parties" has sprung up around the country catering to transgender individuals seeking more feminine features through cheap – sometimes deadly – black-market silicone injections, experts say. Two San Diego transgender women were near death Friday after unlicensed practitioners injected them with liquid silicone at a "pump party" five days earlier, officials said.
Police are searching for a Los Angeles-area woman suspected of injecting as many as a dozen people at two parties that day. None of those at the second party has contacted police.
The two injured women, aged 30 and 45, are among hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people who have sought the illegal treatments to save money and to avoid dealing with the medical establishment, experts say. Their goal is to make their hips, lips, cheeks and buttocks appear more feminine.
"I've been hearing about pump parties for many years but more in the past few," said Dr. Walter Bockting, the coordinator of transgender health services at the University of Minnesota's Center for Human Sexuality. "Being beautiful and shapely is very important to certain segments of the transgender community – it's a self-esteem builder for people who are feeling rejected by their families and communities."
At pump parties, groups of patients typically receive silicone injections from an unlicensed, untrained person who is often using non-medical silicone. Costs tend to run between $200 and $1,000 per treatment, police said.
Industrial-grade silicone, floor products and sealers, and a host of contaminants including motor oil and paraffin have all turned up in post-party patients.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has prohibited direct injection of silicone since 1992. Medical-grade silicone now can be inserted into bodies legally only if it is encapsulated in a sac – as in a breast implant – and does not come into contact with tissue.
RESPIRATORY ARREST POSSIBLE The black market silicone and contaminants can trigger an immune system reaction that results in respiratory arrest -- as happened to the two San Diego women, police said.
There also have been cases of blood poisoning, including a death in Georgia in 2003, and other complications that led to the deaths of three women in Houston and a Florida woman, also in 2003.
Still, some in the transgender community see silicone injection as a reasonable choice and many Web sites offer advice on how to get injections more safely.
"Are you going to trust your best girlfriend or a doctor who may be rude to you and refuse to treat you or disrespect your reasons?" said Mara Keistling, of the National Center for Transgender Equality, in Washington, D.C. "We provide people with advice because we hope to have people do this as safely as possible."
Doctors warn that there is no safe way to inject silicone.
"We know silicone isn't safe when it's not encapsulated," said Janie Cordray of the Medical Board of California. "We know it migrates, that it often becomes part of the tissue and can't be removed, that it causes chronic, serious health problems.
"It's really sad that people can't wait and have appropriate, safer surgery."
With Gaycrest, I mean Hillcrest, the second largest infestation of homosexuals -- I guess this should be expected. One more reason I am happy to leave.
Here, read this to see what's new in sunny San Diego. Pleasant dreams. I;m outta here.
If these powderpuffs want to run around causing harm to themselves and misery and anguish to their friends and "loved ones" MORE POWER TO 'EM!
If it is lethal, I suppose the problem will solve itself.
ROTFLMYKWO! Now that I am doubled over laughing, I think I will call it a night. "powerderpuffs' --- LOL-LOL-LOL.
FOTFLOL! Yes, you're right...lol.
Mara Keistling
Isn't she a doll?
kcvl - I hope your friends know we're all still praying for them. Monday is a huge day.
In February a transsexual woman in Albany, Ga. was imprisoned for involuntary manslaughter in the death of Andre Geter, who died from blood poisoning in December 2003 after being illegally injected with silicone sealer, available in hardware stores.
Stephen Thomas had hosted “pumping parties” for pre-operative transsexuals and charged $300-$400 for the injections, and was sentenced to 15 years, five to be served in a male prison, as she had not changed her legal documents to reflect her female status.
In July 2003, two transsexuals in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., were tried for the third-degree murder of Vera Lawrence in 2001, who was injected with up to 3 gallons of industrial silicone at “pumping parties.”
So just for the sake of my own understanding. The women mentioned in this story arent really women they are mutilated men, and they are injecting silicone caulking in their breasts so they can look,like they have breasts.
We used to have asylums for these crazies before they were outlawed.
Yummy!
Reminds me of an old Woody Allen movie where a mad scientist was pumping silicone into a woman's breast until it detached itself and became a 50 foot boob flattening everything in it's path.
There was a post a while back about some clown that died after he had about two dozen tubes of silicone caulk pumped into his butt cheeks. Now, on top of generic stupid and deviant weirdness, there seems to be a whole lot of brain dysfunction in the entire concept of 12 tubes of cauld going into each cheek.
Assuming a tube of caulk to be 2" in diameter with a 10" fill, that'd be about 31 cubic inches of caulk. Let's call it 30". Multiplied by 12 tubes in each butt cheek, that would be 360 cubic inches in each cheek for a total of 720 cubic inches of beauty enhancing and self-esteem building lovliness. Now what kind of mutant would even want to drag a caboose with the equivalent of half a cubic foot of bath and kitchen silicone caulk festering away under their girdle?
Then again, with that kind of diseased mind it may have just been part of the plan for a spectacular suicide.
I guess the prosecution had a watertight case.
This is right out of an episode of NIP/TUCK! Have you ever seen it????
That was my thought too. But then thats my thought on AIDs....
With Gaycrest, I mean Hillcrest, the second largest infestation of homosexuals -- I guess this should be expected.
I am one happy non homo living in Hillcrest. Wouldn't
trade it for any other neighborhood in San Diego.
Thousands of retired people, thousands of straight
working professionals, upscale and walking distance
to the best in San Diego.
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