On Newborns Multiple Birth Defects, Enraged Mother Sues Pfizer
The details could leave any mother in tears
The details could leave any mother in tears. Finding her son born with many birth defects, a distraught mother files a birth defect lawsuit against Pfizer over its antidepressant Zoloft.
On December 13th 2011, Megan Armstrong filed a case against Pfizer in Pennsylvania. The plaintiff blames the drug company for birth defects found in her newborn baby following Zoloft use. On the 5th of May 2006, her son, William Blaze Armstrong, was born with hydrocephalus or water in the brain, among many other birth defects.
Finding Comfort in Zoloft
Zoloft is one of the more popular drugs today. In 2007 alone, it garnered a whopping 29,652,000 prescriptions making it the most prescribed that year.
Manufactured by Pfizer, Zoloft belongs to the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class of antidepressants. Its main active ingredient is Setraline and the drug is used for many mood and stress related disorders like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to name a few.
Though approved by the FDA in 1991, the drug has drawn some negative attention from mothers whose babies were born with birth defects. In 2006, the FDA issued a warning against the intake of Zoloft and other SSRIs for expecting women.
A Mother in Pain
Though pregnant at that time, Megan took Zoloft in 2006 as prescribed by her doctor. Later that year, on the 5th of May, her son William was born. She was shocked to find out that the child is struck with hydrocephalus, a fatal condition especially for newborns. Worse, her baby was born with spina bifida and other congenital birth defects.
The mother believes her son have been unjustly incapacitated for life. Thus, the plaintiff seeks compensation against Pfizer for past and future troubles. Already, the son has been disfigured as he had to undergo a series of surgeries. And more surgeries and treatments are projected in the future. Added to these is the psychological injury and the mental distress from embarrassment and humiliation.
A Cry for Justice with a Twist
The plaintiff claims she was not aware of the potential risks her baby was facing. Had she been warned, she would not have taken the antidepressant. The lawsuit, therefore, faults Pfizer for failing to provide adequate warning.
However, the lawsuit over birth defects also seeks justice from Wolters Kluwer, an information services and publishing company. This company prepares the patient monographs for Zoloft, information vital to the drug.
The
birth defect lawsuit alleges that Wolters Kluwer should be held liable for the inadequacy of information provided on Zoloft. Pfizer finds this particular action against Wolters Kluwer largely fraudulent, extremely unnecessary and inappropriate.
The reported average of lawsuit settlement for SSRIs like Zoloft is $1.5 M per case. It seems a big amount but it pales in comparison to the sorrows of a mother born with a child with birth defects.
SSRIs are packed with power. It is this power that has caused the drug its greatest triumph and its ugliest complications. As one informative website rotlaw.com of the Rottenstein Law Group (RLG) aptly calls it, SSRIs are powerful and sometimes dangerous.
However, to a mother, justice needs to be served, and fast. For birth defects like these not only limits her son today, it limits her sons capacity to have a life forever.
by: Geraldine Galvan
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