pendennis

The Thalidomide story is one which has a strange follow-up, mainly because of the way a later drug got a bad rap. Bendectin is a very mild anti-nausea drug that has been prescribed for pregnant women. My wife, who had severe morning sickness in early 1975, was prescribed Bendectin, and it gave her a great amount of relief. Our youngest son was born with a severe bilateral cleft lip and palate. I read an article that mentioned the connection between Bendectin and birth defects. I went to the university law library, public and university general libraries, and finally called our family attorney. We were sure that we had a cause of action against the maker.

However, we were referred to a product liability attorney, and went through very painful personal histories, and a list of who was in the chain of prescription. As it turned out, I have a history of cleft lips in my side of the family. So the attorney recommended we not continue the potential suit. We also had to consider just who would be sued besides the drug company. We'd have had to sue our pharmacist, the OB/Gyn, drug maker, distributor, etc. The local folks were family friends, and the OB/Gyn had a stellar reputation.

Fast forward - A story ran in the Detroit Free Press in the late 1990's. It seems that Bendectin was about as benign as herbal tea. The doctor, William McBride who'd been on the Thalidomide case, decided he needed a new d**gon to slay. He falsified a lot of his data, leading to a massive miscarriage of justice.

In our gut, we knew that in this case, good people didn't screw up.