Kacey Long

Regrets getting breast implants at 19

Kacey Long is an amazing 22 year old woman residing in Ennis, Texas (a suburb of Dallas). What makes this young woman so remarkable is the extraordinary effort she is making nationally to help women understand the risks of breast implants. She should know; she became totally disabled after getting saline implants at the young age of 19.

Kacey is the oldest of Keith and Sally Long’s eight children. She was an athletic honor student, who graduated from St. John Catholic High School (in Ennis) in 1999. She was fortunate enough, with her high grade point average to be accepted at Baylor University, in Waco, TX, and in only two short years; received a B.B.A. in Human Resource Management. She then enrolled at Texas A&M-Commerce, to obtain her MS in special education, and is slated to graduate in 2005, but that is only a maybe, because of her current disability status.

At one time Kacey was a top ranked athlete in softball, basketball and volleyball. She was the epitome of health until she received her implants. She justified the procedure by believing she was too "bottom" heavy - "barely a B cup." Although her parents objected, Kacey moved forward to conduct extensive research and located a qualified plastic surgeon. One of her friends had been working for a leading plastic surgeon in Dallas. She highly recommended the doctor and told Kacey how safe the implants would be. After all, "they were only salt water." She herself had undergone breast enhancement with saline implants, and had never had any problems, and to her knowledge none of the doctor’s patients had ever complained about an complications.
 

Kacey met with the surgeon and asked him to make her "perfect". Unfortunately, to the doctor, "perfect" meant going from a size B to a D. Kacey thought the doctor knew everything; after all, her friend had been working for him for 12 years,  and just gone through the procedure herself, without incident.

[What Kacey learned later was that many young women's breasts are not fully developed by age 19, and some don't fully develop until mid 20's. Her breasts grew two cup sizes after explantation]

So in the summer of 2001, Kacey went through breast augmentation surgery. Almost immediately, she began experiencing weird, shooting arm pains. Then slowly, every joint/bone/muscle in her body was in excruciating pain. She was exhausted all of the time, had no energy, began experiencing hair loss, and had pains in her chest, heart, and ribs. She suffered from short term memory loss, and could not think clearly, which made her college work nearly impossible. Before implants, Kacey was a healthy 19 year old, who only suffered from allergies. Now she was near totally disabled, and spent most days curled up under the covers in bed; in excruciating pain.
 

Kacey consulted numerous physicians, who all agreed that her implants were not the cause of her deteriorating health, despite the fact that she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing, spondilitis (arthritis of the neck and spine), fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome.  She was taking nearly forty separate medications in order to get through each day (see photo right).

Finally in the fall of 2003 she consulted with Dr. Edward P. Melmed, a Dallas plastic surgeon. He suggested that possibly her implants were causing her health problems. Kacey decided it was worth it to have her implants removed, if there was any possibility of improving her health. They were explanted in September of that year. Within a matter of days her health began to improve.

Her explantation procedure was filmed and broadcast nationally by MTV, and the segment was promoted on NBC Today Show and ABC’s Good Morning America. It was the ideal forum for Kacey to shout from the rooftops, as to the dangers young women might face with implants - and she did just that!

Like many women, Kacey never thought implants were dangerous. What she did not know was that her saline implants were encased in silicone, and silicone has been found to be harmful to many people. The silicone shell alone may be enough to cause autoimmune diseases and various other health problems. Kacey was tested for silicone poisoning, and the test came back positive.

Today, Kacey is on Social Security disability, and still unable to work. She feels like she will eventually get her life back, but realizes it won’t be without a fight and a continuous struggle.

Kacey has continued to speak out, and do whatever possible to warn other women of the potential dangers of implants. She created a web site (www.implantsout.org) and launched a national campaign to educate women. Like Kacey, many teenage women are getting implants, and a growing number are receiving them as a present for a birthday or graduation. Every Christmas, many young women receive implants as a Christmas gift. Also, women ages 18-20 are maxing out their credit cards and obtaining implants. Kacey, and many doctors believe that some of these women's breasts have yet to fully develop, as was the case with Kacey (Recent Article).

Since the network broadcasts in March of 2004 Kacey has become the most outspoken and sought after media spokesperson on the dangers of implants and other body image issues. She is regularly interviewed for magazine and newspaper articles, and has appeared more than a dozen times on National television (Kacey's media).

In January of 2005 Kacey launched a speaking tour and traveled to major colleges across America. Though she is exhausted much of the time and still suffers with many debilitating symptoms, she spends as many hours a day as she can reaching out to women - fielding phone calls and answering emails. She is regularly sought out for advice from women who are ‘on the fence’ in their decision to obtain implants, and has reversed many.

Kacey is a lovely, compelling and personable interview guest for any audience.

Kacey's Web Site  I  Kacey's Media Coverage  I  Contact Publicist