| May 19 |
Seizure drugs Depakote, Topamax may trigger serious birth defects
What’s one of the worst things a family can hear about their new baby? “Your baby has a birth defect.” Yet this too often happens in America, and not due to the luck of a genetic draw. Rather, it happens because large pharmaceutical companies place profits ahead of safety and sell defective drugs to unsuspecting Americans. Two such drugs are seizure medications Depakote and Topamax. They can be used to fend off migraine headaches and epilepsy. But if taken while a woman is pregnant, especially during her first trimester, they can cause devastating and costly birth defect injuries. What kinds of injuries? Consider spina bifida, in which the baby’s spinal canal and backbone do not close properly prior to birth. After Depakote use by a pregnant woman, her baby faces a risk 12 times higher than normal of suffering this birth defect. |
| Apr 27 |
Zoloft antidepressant causes depressing birth defect injuriesMany people believe America to be an over-prescribed nation. While many drugs are needed, many are not not — or they can do more harm than good. In short, too many people take too many medications which make too much money for too many giant pharmaceutical companies. That includes antidepressant drugs which may or may not be needed by all of their millions of users. But even when a drug does its job, as with antidepressant Zoloft, this may not be a good thing. That’s because there may be a trade-off. And in Zoloft’s case, that trade-off is risking a serious birth defect injury for newborn infant children whose mother took Zoloft during pregnancy. Most likely such women didn’t know that the antidepressant could cause Zoloft birth defects. That’s because its manufacturer, Pfizer Inc., has not adequately warned potential users of such serious Zoloft side effects as heart, brain, gastrointestinal tract, lung and other vital organ injuries to babies whose mother takes the drug. |
| Mar 01 |
Heart, lung, brain and other Paxil birth defects plague America’s newborn infants
This defective drug has been shown to cause dozens of birth defects, from heart, lung and brain ailments to defects of the spinal cord, digestive tract, urinary tracts, abdominal wall and limbs. Some birth defects occur naturally and may be hereditary. Paxil birth defects do not. Paxil birth defects are directly caused by a defective drug taken during pregnancy. |
A child’s birth can be a couple’s most glorious moment. But imagine when that moment is marred by learning their newborn infant suffers birth defects. That’s what is happening to many Americans after a mother-to-be took antidepressant Paxil during pregnancy.| Dec 08 |
Pharmaceutical companies kill 200,000 Americans yearly, enabled by murky foreign testing of new drugs
You may wonder why. You may believe that new drugs are always pre-tested in pharmaceutical trials to ensure their safety. How can such drugs then kill thousands while earning billions in profits for their manufacturers? |
When hundreds or even thousands of Americans are killed by a war, an accident or other violent means, the nation reacts with grief if not outrage. Yet 200,000 Americans are being killed each year by an entity that rarely rises on the nation’s outrage radar: the pharmaceutical industry.| Oct 12 |
Yaz, Yasmin, Ocella defective drugs cause heart attacks, blood clots, strokes — even death
Fortunately, these three brands are the only oral contraceptives which share the drug DRSP, or drospirenone. That drug has been known to cause serious health problems in the heart and kidneys, and also to cause breast lumps, numbness, depression, confusion, vision problems, migraine headaches and pulmonary embolism. |
Statistically, young women are among the least likely persons to have high blood pressure, heart attacks, blood clots, strokes and other cardiovascular ailments. Yet many American women are suffering in these ways — and even dying. That’s because they are users of one of three defective drugs sold as birth control pills: Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella.| Jun 22 |
Heparin overdose of Quaid twins spurs $500,000 hospital settlement
The Associated Press reports that Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles has offered a $500,000 settlement in the case, which the Quaids have accepted. Half of that money will go to each of the twins: Zoe Grace and Thomas Boone. Also, Cedars-Sinai will pay for any additional medical care the Quaid twins ever need related to their injury, though they seem to have recovered. |
A year and a half ago, the heparin overdose of actor Dennis Quaid’s twins was big news. The legal settlement just announced in the case isn’t as big of a news story to most media, but it’s also very significant.