The Faces Behind the Paxil Birth Defect Headlines

Philadelphia, PAStories about Paxil side effects are always accompanied by headlines that contains words and numbers—but not necessarily faces. The people behind the headlines are too often overshadowed by the statistics.

There is Meah Gibson, the little girl who was born with a hole in her heart in 2005. It was eventually corrected by surgery, but the girl's mother, Faith Gibson, says Meah continues to be vulnerable to infections. "My daughter has a huge, awful scar down her chest that will grow with her," Gibson told the Vancouver Province in 2008. "She's little, and if there's a cold or anything going around she gets it and she gets it way worse [than other children]."

Gibson was prescribed Paxil by her doctor, who told her the medication was safe. Ironically, Paxil manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) issued a warning about the heightened risk of cardiovascular birth defects associated with Paxil in September 2005, the very month little Meah was born. Four months later the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) strengthened the warning.

You have also heard of Lyam Kilker, who was born a month after Meah, in October 2005, with two holes in his heart as well as another heart defect. His mother's family has no history of heart defects.

What Lyam Kilker and Meah Gibson have in common is that their mothers both took Paxil while pregnant. Paxil was classified as a drug with no known link to increased birth defects from its introduction in 1992 through 2005.

In the first Paxil lawsuit of what appears to be a string of trials, a Philadelphia jury awarded the family of Lyam Kilker $2.5 million in compensatory damages this past fall. In Kilker v. Glaxo, the jury found that the Paxil manufacturer "negligently failed to warn" the doctor treating Lyam Kilker's mother about Paxil's risks and the drug was a "factual cause" of Lyam's heart defects.

Next on the docket is the action filed by Derek and Laura Novak, whose child was born with heart effects on April 4, 2002. Laura had been prescribed Paxil off-label for migraines.

There are about 600 Paxil birth defect cases pending in multi-district litigation in Pennsylvania, despite the almost $1 billion GSK has already paid out to resolve lawsuits since 1992, according to Bloomberg News.