TV host Andi Lew warns of breast implant risks after rupture almost killed her

TV host and author Andi Lew is demanding the risks of breast implants be better explained to patients after she suffered a life-threatening medical problem with her cosmetic surgery.

Australian TV host and author Andi Lew was dying from an illness caused by her breast implants. Now, she is rushing to educate others to explant. Picture: Rochelle Brodin/Supplied.

Breast implant illness is not a matter of luck, but a matter of time.

That’s the message Australian TV host, podcaster, and author Andi Lew is shouting from the rooftops after narrowly surviving a life threatening implant rupture in March.

“Six doctors and an MRI told me I was fine,” Lew said. Meanwhile, silicone was leaking into her body and causing it to shut down.

“It’s medical gaslighting, something most women have experienced in their lives.”

Since sharing her story with The Daily Telegraph and The Today Show earlier this year, Lew said she receives “a flood” of daily messages from women who have realised their implants are the cause of debilitating health problems.

“Women must be presented with more facts on the risks. It’s not a case of some women are lucky, and some aren’t. It’s a matter of time and when they fall ill, they need to have at least $14,000 ready to go for removal.

“Then you wait to see if you can get in, because there are not enough surgeons to perform the oncological procedure taking out the surrounding scar tissue around the implant bag as well because it needs to be tested for new types of cancer.”

Author and wellness coach Andi Lew has published her 10th novel, Treasured Chest, Exposing Explants and Empowering You. Picture: Rochelle Brodin/Supplied.

It took Lew a year and a half to be taken seriously, at which point she was “begging” for hospital admission.

Lew, 50, who is mum to a 13-year-old son, originally had the implant surgery eight years ago and while initially pleased with the result, she started to feel ill with various symptoms, including rapid hair loss, tinnitus, shortness of breath, anxiety, inflammation, and gut and digestive issues.

“One woman with implants and mild symptoms said she immediately booked herself in for an explant after reading my story,” Lew said. “Her implants were green with mould, both of them ruptured.”

Since Andi Lew shared her story with The Daily Telegraph, she said she receives a flood of messages from concerned women daily. Picture: Christian Anstey/The Daily Telegraph.

Wellness influencer Andi Lew. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

That’s what “compelled” her to publish her tenth book, Treasured Chest, Exposing Explants and Empowering You, at rapid pace. Part memoir, part guide for BII sufferers, Lew’s book is a rallying cry against the cosmetic surgery industry.

This comes as cosmetic doctors say one in four Aussies Millennials have had some kind of surgery, and 59 per cent are considering it in future.

“For the longest time, doctors have said it’s all in our heads, that they need more data to prove implants aren’t safe. Well, we are the science. We are the proof. The sufferers are the experts,” Lew told The Daily Telegraph.

Andi Lew. Picture: Rochelle Brodin/Supplied.

In her own case, nothing showed up on an MRI because doctors were looking for a traditional hole.

“Silicon is not inert, so there’s no hole to look for. The whole thing’s becoming a gel bleed.

It’s melting. Mine was a fold that became a bleed and that fold was there from day one,” she said.

Lew’s explant surgeon Anand Deva is also the director of Macquarie Health’s Breast Implant Check Clinic, the first of its kind in the world that provides health checks for women. His research has found BII can even cause a rare type of lymphoma.

“The body can reject the silicon and heavy metals immediately, it’s worse than plastic. Why doesn’t the TGA put a black box warning on them? There are class actions brewing with millions of women across the world,” Lew added.

Yet about 20,000 women have breast implants in Australia every year, with around three-quarters of them doing so for cosmetic enlargement. Those numbers slowed during the pandemic, but are picking up again.

Originally published as TV host Andi Lew warns of breast implant risks after rupture almost killed her