Silicone in breast implants are bulletproof

Question

"Doctors noted that the silicone implant was likely responsible for deflecting the bullet’s trajectory – ultimately saving the woman’s life."

- CNN

Comments

The claim that silicone breast implants are "bulletproof" is misleading and not entirely accurate. While there is a reported incident where silicone breast implants may have altered the trajectory of a bullet and potentially reduced injury, this does not mean that breast implants are designed or reliably effective at stopping bullets.You should have done more research about it to see if its true.

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Hello! This quote does show that a woman's implants saved her from a bullet to the chest. With that being said, that does not mean that implants are bulletproof, across the board, for everyone. Clarify that more next time. Great work overall!

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I think their argument misapplies the quote from the CNN story. Although a breast implant might have prevented a bullet in a particular case, this does not imply that all implants are impervious to bullets. After looking into the article you cited, I discovered that although it may imply that breast implants may lessen a bullet's penetration, it is deceptive to say that all implants are impregnable. This would suggest that all implants are bulletproof, which is obviously untrue.

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The student's article is a news article that talks more about the incident and less about implants being bulletproof. This shooting incident is also one of a few incidents that were recorded that saved a patient's life; there is not much information to go off to say breast implants are bulletproof. According to the National Library of Medicine, “The impact of a gunshot is tied to a bullet's path and placement within the body.” Due to the placement of the bullet, the patient took less damage, but if the trajectory of the bullet was different, it could have been life-threatening. The National Library of Medicine also states, “Pannucci et al evaluated the potential protective benefit of breast implants by measuring penetration distance into ballistics gel after gunshot passage through a saline implant, revealing a 20.6% decrease in penetration compared with that seen with no implant”. Having saline breast implants can lessen the chances of penetration, but that does not mean that breast implants are bulletproof. The student’s statement is exaggerated.

Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9949879/

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Shown from these 2 articles the breast implants do slow down bullets on impact and also in some ways can save lives. But that doesn't mean they are bulletproof. Said at the bottom of the Dr. Adams.com article “Let’s say that the average human chest cavity is 6” deep. This means if you had breast implants and were shot with a handgun, the bullet would only go 5” deep into your chest cavity.” This reinforces the fact that they can help to slow down a bullet but that doesn't make them bulletproof.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/21/americas/breast-implant-bullet-wound-wellness-intl-scli/index.html
https://www.dr-adams.com/blog/can-a-breast-implant-stop-a-bullet/

Answer 1

The claim “Silicone in breast implants are bulletproof” is false. According to dr-adams.com, "A knife and/or bullet can easily penetrate through an implant". Silicone is not a material that is manufactured to be bulletproof.

Answer 2

Unfortunantly I think they are explaining the reason this person survived an incident, rather than saying that all breast implants are bulletproof.

Answer 3

The claim that "silicone in breast implants is bulletproof" is misleading. While silicone implants, particularly the newer generation of cohesive gel implants (often referred to as "gummy bear" implants), are designed to be highly durable and resistant to rupture under normal conditions, they are **not bulletproof.** I believe that CNN was simply trying to explain why this person was able to survive as opposed to making a claim/generalization. These implants are resilient and can withstand certain pressures, and in some cases, even remain intact when the shell is punctured, but they cannot resist the extreme force of a bullet. For example, a rupture from significant trauma, such as being hit by a bullet, would likely occur despite the implant's resistance to smaller stresses. It's important to understand that while modern silicone implants, such as those made with cohesive gel, are designed for durability, they are not meant to withstand extreme situations like gunfire (ASPS, 2020; Galanis Plastic Surgery, 2020).

More details about the durability and resilience of breast implants can be found from sources like the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) and other reputable plastic surgery clinics at (https://www.plasticsurgery.org).

Answer 4

This claim is false. It misapplies and exaggerates what the actual point of the story is. While this lady's breast implants may have saved her life, it does not mean that they are bullet proof which is what the claim is saying.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/21/americas/breast-implant-bullet-wound-wellness-intl-scli/index.html

Answer 5

the article accurately reports a documented case where a silicone breast implant deflected a bullet, contributing to the woman's survival. This phenomenon, though uncommon, is supported by medical evidence. But the article grabs your attention by telling us "breast implants are bulletproof" yet this is an extremely rare instance and there is not enough research to prove that breast implants are bulletproof.

Answer 6

To say that, “Silicone in breast implants are bulletproof” is a reach. This claim is taken from CNN’s story about a gunshot wound survivor titled, “Woman’s breast implant deflects bullet, saving her life.” Upon quick look, these two statements do seem similar; however, bulletproof implies that breast implants are exclusively designed to be armored against bullets. 

According to the FDA, breast implants are designed to, “[increase] breast size (known as augmentation), [to reconstruct] after breast cancer surgery or trauma, and to correct developmental defects.” No where does the FDA mention that the purpose of breast implants is to shield people against bullets. To support this idea that breast implants are not bulletproof, we can use the FDA’s description of what makes up a breast implant; a breast implant can either be saline or silicone gel filled, both with an outer shell to protect the liquid. The FDA does not exclusively say that implants are made with hardware to protect against a bullet. The FDA even states that breast implants carry the risk of rupturing inside the woman’s breast, which does not help support the claim that breast implants are bulletproof.  

Knowing that breast implants are not bulletproof, we can circle back to the original article that this statement originated from. To simply say, there is no place in the CNN article where it claims that breast implants are bulletproof. This claim exaggerates the true story, because the breast implant did not armor the bullet, rather it played a role in “deflecting the bullet’s trajectory” (CNN). You must take into account the trajectory of the bullet for the case of this woman and the way that affected the bullet’s ability to fully penetrate her chest. It’s important to consider things like velocity and proximity of the bullet before making this type of claim. CNN states that the details of the shooting were not clear which can further explain why this person’s claim is faulty.

Based on this woman’s medical story, it is safe to say that breast implants can contribute to the effect of a bullet’s trajectory. However, after some research, I say this claim is overall misleading.

Article:

https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/what-know-about-breast-implants

Answer 7

The claim is that silicone in breast implants are bulletproof. This is an exaggerated claim. 

The CNN article that is linked covers a unique story in which a woman survived a close range gunshot to the chest because her breast implant "caused the change in trajectory of the bullet." Even the title of the article says that the implant "deflected" the bullet, not stopped it entirely from hurting the woman. So, the claim maker likely took that story and ran with it. 

While the implant changed the bullet's path away from the woman's vital organs, the bullet still delivered gunshot wounds, broken ribs, and broke both of the implants. So, saying that silicone implants are bulletproof is a bit of an exaggeration. 

Not to mention, upon searching the claim up on the web, one article comes up that mentions an experiment done by plastic surgeon Christopher Pannucci. He used a gel ball, similar to human tissue, and put a breast implant around it. Then, he shot a handgun at it from 2.5 meters away, and found that compared to the control group, it reduced the average distance traveled into the gel by 20%. 

So, while a breast implant may provide a small amount of protection against deflecting a bullet, they are in no means designed to be bulletproof. 

https://www.dr-adams.com/blog/can-a-breast-implant-stop-a-bullet/

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/21/americas/breast-implant-bullet-wound-wellness-intl-scli/index.html

Answer 8

This claim is misconstruing the information in the cited CNN article, which details how a woman's breast implants are believed to have deflected a bullet from her vital organs. Nowhere in the article or the case study provided in the article were the silicone implants found to be bullet proof. In fact, the bullet passed through the implant, which you can see in the images in the article, which show where the bullet lodged in her body and the path of the bullet through the implant. 

Woman’s breast implant deflects bullet, saving her life | CNN

Life-Saving Silicone Breast Implant After Firearm Injury: Case Report and Treatment Recommendations - Giancarlo McEvenue, Anastasia Oikonomou, Noah Ditkofsky, Joan Lipa, 2020

Answer 9

A case was reported where a gun shot was deflected by a breast implant. This does not mean that breast implants are bullet proof though. This was just an incident where the breast implant took the damage but not her body itself. From this gun shot she suffered with a ruptured implant on her left side and a broken rib on the right. The broken rib though wasn't from direct contact of the bullet though. There have been multiple cases reported where women's lives have been saved from bullet wounds by their breast implants. By no means are the breast implants themselves bulletproof. 

sources:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/21/americas/breast-implant-bullet-wound-wellness-intl-scli/index.html

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9949879/

Answer 10

The claim that "silicone breast implants are bulletproof" is extremely misleading. The CNN article that is referenced here does say that a woman's breast implant potentially saved her life, but that does not make it bulletproof. CNN states "A woman who survived a close-range gunshot wound to the chest was saved because of her silicone breast implants, doctors believe." News Scientist wrote an article about Dr. Christopher Pannucci, who is a plastic surgeon at the University of Utah. Dr. Pannucci and his colleagues performed an experiment to test the credibility of the claim that breast implants can save lives. Their experiment consisted of firing a handgun into a gel-like substance called ballistics gel which is used to mimic the texture of human skin. They then placed a saline breast implant in front of the gel and fired into that. They found that it seemed the breast implant had reduced the distance that the bullet traveled into the gel by 20 percent. Although, in their experiment the breast implant reduced the bullet's distance, it still hit the gel, meaning that the implants are not bulletproof. 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/21/americas/breast-implant-bullet-wound-wellness-intl-scli/index.html

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2140495-breast-implants-can-lessen-gunshot-injuries-by-slowing-bullets/

Breast implants are typically made of either saline or silicone and according to the Sarkar Tactical staff, bulletproof vests are typically made of kevlar, polyethylene, spectra shield, twaron, dyneema, steel, or ceramic. None of these materials closely resemble saline or silicone. 

https://sarkartactical.com/what-are-bulletproof-vests-made-of/#what-materials

In certain circumstances, breast implants are thought to have saved lives, but claiming that they are bulletproof is false.