Edmonton, ABTanya took Paxil during the first three months of her pregnancy, in 2002. "My baby has a broken heart and I blame the makers of Paxil," she says.
Her son, Douglas, is almost four years old and he will likely need a heart valve replaced. It has been a difficult time, but it could have been worse: Tanya weaned herself off Paxil even though her doctor said that it was safe and she could stay on it throughout her pregnancy. Call it mother's intuition...
"Douglas was born healthy and happy on his due date," says Tanya. "About seven days after he was born we took him to his first doctor's visit and there was a slight heart murmur but the doctor said there was nothing to worry about. 'On a scale of one to five, the highest being five, Douglas is a .25 and he will probably grow out of it,' the doctor told us. But months later the murmur was still there.
I am paranoid. I told the doctor that Douglas was coughing and he suggested an ultrasound. Thank God we had him checked - Douglas had a cleft mitral valve and he was diagnosed with an atrial septal defect - a hole in his heart. I was devastated and had no idea why this had happened. There are no heart problems on either side of our family so this discovery came out of left field. It was determined that he needed heart surgery before the age of three.
Our little guy Douglas
I didn't want to wait, spending endless nights watching him, thinking he might stop breathing. The doctor said that the hole could be repaired but he wasn't sure about the valve. Douglas had the surgery and it went extremely well - how resilient kids are at 18 months. He was up and walking in no time.
The end result was that the hole was repaired but the valve had become worse; it was torn. There was nothing they could do at that time but put him on heart medication twice a day, hoping it would get better. It hasn't gotten any better and he is still on the medication to this day.
I am concerned about the length of time he will need to be on this medication. After all, I took Paxil and had no knowledge of its side effects. As well, the medication he is taking is made for adults. It is supposed to slow down his blood flow in the hope that the valve will heal itself, but he may need to have it replaced - right now it is a waiting game.
When I saw something about Paxil and the link to birth defects on the news, I was dumbfounded. It was really odd that Douglas had these problems - I couldn't understand why. Of course I realize that babies are born with deformities but both sides of my family had no heart problems. I know the first three months are most crucial for heart growth and this is the time I took Paxil.
The more I read about Paxil and other people's stories, the angrier I got. Douglas is going to be OK but many babies aren't. How can the makers of Paxil put money before people? I blame them and what they did is so wrong.
In a way, it was a relief to find out that Paxil caused Douglas's heart defects because I was blaming it all on myself. Actually, I still blame it on myself but now I know why. This is what I want to happen: I want Paxil off the market, completely wiped off the shelves permanently. I want GlaxoSmithKline to pay for what they have done - we live in Canada and the health care system is wonderful here but if we lived in the US we would be bankrupt. GlaxoSmithKline shouldn't be able to mess with people's loves and from what I understand, they knew that Paxil caused birth defects a long time ago.
If you took Paxil during pregnancy, and your baby was born with PPHN, please contact a lawyer involved in a possible [Paxil Birth Defects Lawsuit] to review your case at no cost or obligation.