Photos: Ex-Playboy Model Karen McDougal Gets Breast Implants Removed [Graphic]


The so-dubbed breast explantation movement continues to grow, as reported by the Inquisitr. Crystal Hefner, the wife of Hugh Hefner, described her reasons for getting her breast implants removed. Now another former Playboy Playmate of the Year has opened up about her recent surgery: Karen McDougal. Karen can be seen in the above photo in the center, wearing purple. The former Playboy model told the Inquisitr about her journey to breast implant removal, and provided some of the photos in the following photo gallery from right before surgery, during the explantation surgery and afterward, in her recovery room.

Warning: Some of the photos contained in the photo gallery are graphic, and might be disturbing to some viewers.

Although Karen stated that she didn’t even remember some of the above post-op photos being taken, she has already felt many improvements to her health since the day of her explantation surgery on January 31. To get her breast implants removed, McDougal turned to David A. Rankin, MD, from Aqua Plastic Surgery out of Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, and West Palm Beach, Florida.

The Breast Implant Victim Advocacy shared Karen’s story on their Facebook page, as seen below.

https://www.facebook.com/breastimplantvictimadvocacy/posts/398320443859179

Karen first got her breast implants in March 1996. McDougal explained that over the next two decades, she began to experience a variety of symptoms that only began to ease up shortly after her breast implant removal surgery.

“I had my implants put in March 1996 (so I had them for almost 21 years)…. I explanted January 31, 2017. I had smooth saline on top of the muscle. I thought I had 350 CC (but it turned out one implant had 450 CC and one had almost 475 CC….both so large Dr. Rankin said they were crammed up under my arms). It’s only been 2 weeks since removal, but I already feel better (besides this flu)….my vision isn’t blurred, my severe knee pain is gone, migraines are gone, dizziness gone….”

As reported by the Daily Mail, the 45-year-old McDougal experienced a successful breast explant removal, with Dr. Rankin reporting that since Karen’s breast implants had stretched her tissue over the years, he was able to perform a nice breast lift after McDougal’s implants were removed.

Meanwhile, Karen reported that the impetus for getting breast implants in the first place was due to wanting a larger bust — with McDougal believing breast implants would make her feel more womanly. Karen admitted that the breast implants did initially make her feel more like a woman, in a superficial way. Despite the fact that McDougal confessed to loving her breast implants in the beginning, Karen also stated that she would have never gotten breast implants had she known just how much sicker she would grow over the years — a sickness that Karen directly correlates to her breast implants.

“Eventually feeling like I was slowly dying. All I could do is lay in bed, cry and pray to God, asking him to please ‘don’t take me yet..give me one more day!’ Around January 2016 I started getting ‘sick’….but as I look back, many symptoms began around 7-8 years after getting the implants.”

Karen described having issues with a hormone decline/disruption, adrenal fatigue, thyroid issues, and developing allergies “to everything.” McDougal said her eyes were consistently red and sick looking, with Karen reporting that she would get sick every few months, with the worst part being that each sickness lasted 6 to 8 weeks at a time. During these bouts of illness, Karen was almost completely bed-bound for most of the time. Karen’s headaches became more frequent.

By July of 2016, McDougal said her health got worse, and she was plagued with blurry vision, dizzy spells, frequent blackouts, trouble breathing and swallowing, along with a choking feeling. Karen had chronic fatigue, memory issues, heart palpitations and panic attacks. When she had “good days,” feeling about 50 percent of full strength, McDougal would take advantage of those three to five days to get errands done.

Visiting doctors, neurologists, and other experts didn’t help, because when Karen mentioned “Breast Implant Illness,” none of the medical experts believed in the malady, reports McDougal.

“So I stopped wasting money for NO answers. I prayed and prayed…and GOD led me to do what was necessary to regain my health….explant!!”

By October 2016, Karen stopped driving. Her blurry vision, dizziness, panic attacks, hearing sensitivity, light sensitivity, and migraines saw to that, she said. After feeling “led” to Dr. Rankin, a physician that Karen credits with knowing the importance of removing the entire breast implant capsule — which can grow into breast tissue, ribs, etc. and must be scraped off — a man that McDougal calls both a healer and artist — McDougal feels she’s regained her journey to health.

https://www.facebook.com/CrystalHarrisHefner/posts/1059298800803048

With the growing breast explantation being cataloged on social media, McDougal is one of the latest women to go public with their breast implant removal surgery in hopes of helping other women.

[Image by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Playboy]

[Featured Image by Vince Bucci/Newsmakers]

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