Money Awarded For Buttocks Implant
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Filed at 8:56 p.m. EDT
By The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) -- A jury on Monday awarded a former exotic dancer $30,000 for
the anguish she claims she suffered when a doctor used silicone breast
implants to enlarge her buttocks.
Mary Gale, 43, said she was disappointed with the award.
``This doctor ruined my body,'' she said. ``I'm hoping other women won't have
to go through what I had to go through, especially the humiliation.''
But lawyers for the former dancer and for Dr. Elliot Jacobs, the cosmetic
surgeon Gale sued, both declared victory. Neither side asked the judge to
change the verdict or set it aside the verdict.
Gale's lawyer, Cynthia Matheke, had told the jury that Jacobs did not tell
Gale that he would use breast implants. If he had told her, she said Gale
would not have had the surgery.
Paul Paley, Jacobs' lawyer, said, ``As malpractice verdicts go, this $30,000
has almost nothing but nuisance value.''
Paley had argued that Gale was a ``plastic surgery junkie'' who had undergone
at least six surgical procedures in pursuit of perfection and was rarely
happy with the results.
Jacobs said he ``did everything by the book. I believe to this day that I did
everything right.''
Gale said she underwent the $6,500 surgery in 1990. She said she was
``horrified'' when she saw the results. ``I looked like I had two (breasts)
on my butt,'' she testified.
Gale had alleged malpractice, negligence, pain and suffering, lost income,
and mental anguish.
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