Transcripts For DW DocFilm 20240713

The worst drug disaster in history would spread through more than 46 countries and produce up 220000 badly deformed babies worldwide. But historians today single out one birth in 1961 that changed the course of history in hamburg germany linda shoulder feeling age 23 gave birth to her 1st child her husband was with her the time and it was quite a day. And then i lay back and was relaxed and some i mean somebody whispered into my ear shot hospital not all right but i was here white awake and i said. What whats got what has happened to my baby. Anything vall you know she said just. Lets say. Without any emotion. You know hes just got short arms and i like a child would have us possibly i said and auntie growing anymore and shit this card grow this will be like it is now. And then i felt like i was beaten to death. The doctor gave the 1st time mothers son friendly advice just get another child. Like forget about him you know. Poem a way to get about shortly afterwards then his husband arrived and gave her some bad news hed been keeping from her 6 weeks earlier his sister had given birth to a baby with similar deformities it looks alike like i watched them us be something that is the same all ridgen the same difficulty the same problem in the background and well find it and real search and we wont stop until we fall and was not the was. The epidemic of deformed babies began 5 and a half years earlier on Christmas Day 956 with the birth of the 1st victim. In a small town of the uk and germany a mother had taken a new drug called full of a mite being developed by a local drug company can be grown in the her husband like other grown in 1000 boys had taken home a sample which he gave to his pregnant wife the baby would be the 1st of 6 for the my babies possibly more born to grin and 1000 workers in the years ahead but the company ignored the Early Warning signals in their midst no thats for grins old one which. Didnt investigate didnt talk to mom didnt go to the hospital didnt look at medical records didnt call tiger experts there were multiple of charities for groups all to cope holds us to short moments working 9 months after the 1st deformed baby was born grown and all launched the then abide on to the German Market under the brand name contra gone good in 1000 gress of so. Ells force whose motto was succeed at any cost continue to promote the drug cardigan they claimed was a safe sedative especially for pregnant women suffering from morning sickness sales zoom and the little my became a 2nd best selling drug next to aspirin. But linda shielding helen and her husband carl hammond were determined to find out what caused their sons short arms months later they were no closer to finding an answer i know my husband had times when he said we wont make it i think we have to give up and i said of not giving up. Her husband soon contacted a professor of obstetrics dr video can lens who had received a few reports of deformed babies my father and professor lance they travel to germany in their old folks wagon and they went from one small village to another and asked are there any children with short legs or shot. And those kids were hidden away at the time in the small villages and he asked and restaurants and bars and the local Police Office and everybody said no not in our town and then he showed a picture of me and said this is my boy and can i please repeat my question and then they said well at the end of the road there has been a very sad incident and then he went there and bring the dawn shot 1st thing he did was showing the pictures means that this is my son diaz who had a kid like this other people burst into tears and and children thalidomide childrens were. Pulled to the day our flight literally. In england was being sold under the brand name disturbed by the countrys margins liquor manufacturer the Distillers Company as in germany distillers had received reports of deformed babies but had been assured by green and thought that the drug was completely. Louise mason was one of 533 little my babies born in england over a 6 and a half year period the weser only learned about the circumstances of her birth by reading her fathers bestselling autobiography i havent got any arms and legs and my dad said it was like Little Flower bugs. You know from my arms and from my lips my dad had a look at me. And. He said my god youre not going to let this baby live. And they say yes my mum was only 21 and she was advised by doctors to put me away and concentrate on having another family. After 11 days in hospital her parents took louise to an institution for Handicapped Children where she would spend the next 18 years of her life but louise was fortunate her father had not asked another doctor to end her life because im questionable about midwives and doctors were killing disabled children. In the hospitals and the delivery rooms on a large scale in britain. In germany. And if theyre probably everywhere else in canada another armless baby was spared by a poor ukrainian family in rural Sysco Agilent years later calvin law learned how horrified his natural parents were when he was born ultimately it was the paternal grandmother who didnt want to have anything to do with us she said youre not going to bring that devil baby home with you hes hes deformed because of a curse. The armless baby wasnt taken home after doctors warned he would never lead a normal life but after 6 weeks an elderly couple jack and hilda law who had already raised their own children volunteered as foster parents and got their 1st look at alice and i took one look and i thought no wonder nobody wanted. And the next time i went to see him push they had a bath and dressed and hid and took their toll. While i was in favor of taking him oh boy weve raised our family members are but. It was a baby with nobody wanted im sure were going to. Turn out ok. My life story shifted the moment that sophie and peter my 1st father gave me. That that that is a profound chapter shift in my life because i went to live with the laws. Of my life became this wife. Back. In Cincinnati Ohio and deeply religious Roman Catholic couple with 6 children were expecting another normal birth my mothers story is that when i was born they were not at all prepared and the doctor said joy your baby doesnt have any legs. So she says that she took the baby me and she said well eileen is my 4 leaf clover. I have a sibling who told me that my father cried and that when he came home he handed me to my siblings and everyone got very upset and they said take it away. Someone ripped off the blankets and said x. Not a baby or something to that effect thats not our sister. That was what i was told. As a young child. Painful. Eileen cronan was one of several thalidomide babies born in cincinnati where an American Drug company richards and merrill had their headquarters like the german drug Company Merrill promoted the drug as completely safe even during pregnancy like green and merrill had no evidence to back this up. Merrill applied to the federal Drug Administration in 1960 for approval to bring sullivan might onto the American Market and was allowed to conduct Clinical Trials on patients across the country now it wasnt a Clinical Trial at all what it was was a Marketing Campaign trumped up to look like a Clinical Trial michael magazine it is an australian lawyer and former Investigative Reporter who spent years researching the thalidomide disaster what merrill wanted to do was to familiarize doctors with a drug so that once they got approval but would have doctors already to go through with the drug really to prescribe it like crazy the little mite was now being sold in close to 50 Countries Worldwide in 1961 in australia dr William Mcbride delivered 3 solid my babies in a few months he alerted distillers the british distributor thalidomide but they claimed they never received his warnings and pregnant mothers like wendy roll continue to take the lead in mind for morning sickness but when her daughter the net was born when he immediately knew something was wrong when she was born it was just deadly silence in the in the room and i just knew that something must be wrong and now that he said a word yes lad siletz and anyway i finally they said to me that there was a problem with that you had no arms legs and. You know and i gave it to me and she did she doesnt look very different to what she does nancy and sticking up there in the cutest little faces. And. And that i you know its just like a slacker not me i suppose in a way that they dont you know when you looked at her and thought wooden you could love it you cant you know you cant do anything without that and i said we think shes got some brain damage but we dont know what the state not just looked better not that its a good thing now out and you can skip brandon as well but hopefully. They tell me that i should put her in a home and she would be dead in 6 months weightlifter there for a way quite a way to why. Just to get ahead to really ended all and in canberra to pick up on that was really hard going back to the hospital to pick her up. In germany grown in 1000 Advertising Campaigns paint here huge dividends and Companies Owner and executives were making fortunes overnight especially Heinrich Mokhtar going in 1000 research director. During a war mokhtar served as a nutty doctor developing vaccines which were tested on jewish prisoners in the book and vowed concentration camps many of whom died after the war mokhtar joined grown and sell 9 years later he invented thalidomide and received a bonus for every thought in my pills sold worldwide in germany where the pill sold at a rate of 15000000. 00 a month 5000 children of it born before from starboard germany morley safer report in november of 1931 just 300 miles from here in hamburg dr venter could let the director of human genetics at the university of have found an astounding increase in the number of deformed the babies it used to conduct or a little was because intel sent out 66000 letters to german doctors declaring the drug. 66000 list from atop his own you know its. There was a period where they had been told that the drug was largely responsible for the epidemic of malformations and deaths and theyre telling doctors the drug use us and it really wasnt until the press got hold of it. And they knew it was going to go public but they finally backed off from the group. On november 28th 1981 a day after the thalidomide scandal made headlines in west germany 1000 elst it was withdrawing the drug from the market even at 1st light of the spring of 1961 they had taken the drug off the market that they would have spent half the buy. In england louise mason and didnt see her parents and 3 siblings for months at a time. I was let alone most of the time my parents had other children is no way that they could leave them in my nan because my grandpa was old so they just stopped coming. I went home 3 weeks a year. For a week when we can sum up my making christmas im a big easter every holiday was like getting to know your brothers and sisters again. Alvin laws parents decided the best way to get their arm less son to cope with life was to turn his tones into a single for hours album was given manual task to perform with the teacher. Granted having no arms of the exact rather simple disability very complicated disability and id be lying if i didnt say it was a lot of work a lot of work a lot of time spent by myself very lonely very afraid very frustrated but i think it was the character that was built by my parents especially by my parents. That allowed me to not really think that i was all that different. Its not an easy thing to get dressed but. Again it goes back to the basic theory of my life and that is to i have someone look after me or do i look after myself. But more than anything i think its a mindset you know that ok theres a lot of people in our world that have wave bigger problems than i am so that i have to spend a little extra effort putting my clothes on so what. The moment i started using my tolls and my feet and my legs was the same moment i ceased to have a disability. In the United States there would have been thousands of the little my babies like al the law except for the actions of one woman dr Francis Kelsey a canadian born doctor and pharmacology is had just joined the federal Drug Administration when she received an application to bring thalidomide onto the American Market here was a drug who looked like it should be no problem but at the same time there was just a feeling that. There was something in the leader of the absence of the. Cause of concern the application came from Richardson Merrill one of americas oldest Drug Companies known years ago for its best selling product mix cough drops merrill poured on the pressure they contacted the f. D. A. 50 times they went behind a back to those periods they complained about her in writing the threatened level proceedings they pushed and pushed and pushed and she was resolute she was unbelievably tough. Right now that were all white and most indebted to dr kelsey the relationship in the hope that all of us have for our children in august 1962 president john. F. Kennedy ordered the highest civilian honor an american can receive so dr Francis Kelsey world doctor killed she said i need to know more i want to have more i demand to have more the canadian government simply approved it and i believe that was below the standard of what should have been expected from an industrialized. First world. Country like very civilized canada phillida might continue to be sold in canada for 4 months after it was withdrawn from the German Market the food and drug directorate in ottawa issued no warnings to the public while the drug remained on pharmacy shelves. Most of the miners dont use artificial limbs today but eileen cronan is an exception she wears artificial legs every day to get around. I was born with both legs missing from the knees down according to my mother i did it back to the legs pretty quickly. If you have. You know artificial legs a lot of things go wrong youve got to go around conducting life and yeah you know youve got a skin infection and youve got to put the leg on when youre going to do me i put the leg on i guess thats not always the best thing to do but. Thats what i do. In australia artificial limbs proved to be useless and even dangerous for lynette row these legs when theres on fire leading to walking but they are terribly dangerous because every step she took she had to rope from start to slide the least little thing on the path she would just fall either strike again. Lynette required the full time care of her devoted parents. For years her mothers nightly routine was always the same. And you know getting up in the north and tuning youre getting youre in the sort of the its a constant thing that. I talk to some Young Mothers sometimes and they say if you dont know nothing nothing do you think. d he has enough shore. In march 967. 00 the owner and 8 executives of grown in the german drug company were charged with criminal negligence premeditated bodily harm and manslaughter. Among the defendants was Heinrich Mokhtar the nasty doctor who made a fortune inventing fellow to mind one german historian has looked out a short list of grim file staff from the early sixtys and he said its absolutely astonishing that a Small Company should have such a concentration of convicted war criminals on stock unusual even by the standards of christ was. Another charge grown on zach it was audio ambrose and thats the war criminal known as the devils chemist ambrose was convicted of war crimes he committed at auschwitz for which he served 4 years in prison but after the war the chemist found no shortage of employers including dow chemical j. Peter grace and the u. S. Armys chemical corps before he became chairman of grain and 1000 board of directors in 1971. The man who hired nancy war criminals like ambrose and was green and felt owner herrmann verts verts was a member of the local nattie party in his hometown before the 2nd world war a service for which he was. Handsomely rewarded by an alphabet like this Family Companies have actually thrived during the war years because they got a contract from a german army to slice open to tosha means. They had been supplied with slave work because they had been basically handed to come in as all apply the both father jewish owned or jewish control the use of no america was the personal lawyer for a good 1000 owner herrmann verbs but in december 966 noid berger resigned suddenly became Justice Minister in the province where the trial was being held grow fast cheap defense lawyer. Ended up with a government responsibility for overseeing the conduct of the trial. That kind of strength. One german observer of the day said this makes us look worse than the banal republic. Away from the trial a secret deal was worked out between granting 1000 owner and herrmann birds and the provincial government the secret deal was only revealed when the trial was dramatically stopped after 2 and a half years under the deal volumes of the prosecutions evidence would be sealed from public view. In return for having all the serious criminal charges against its owner and executives dropped the company agreed to pay the victims lifetime pensions ranging from 30. 00 to 140. 00 a month as well as a small one time payments but in order to collect the money the little mite has had to agree not to launch any further suits against green and felt so taken as a whole the trial was a glorious if unlucky triumph. Really scope from the disaster really to a lot leave given the sky and the scope of the tragedy. While canada loudly celebrated its 100th birthday and 967. 00 the so never mind for. Emilies suffered in silence a few parents had committed suicide others became alcoholics and some were having severe psychiatric. Lets listen my children were now school age but the question that plagued medical and educational authorities was what type of school should they enter school says wait hes got no arms he cant go to school they dont have such a thing as integration on and out again what integration is a kid who needs to go to school he needs to learn is to be educated he can write he can read what else do you need the School Finally agreed to take out that in england 197. 00 families of the little my children were suing distillers the British Company which had distributed the drug distillers made a ridiculously low offer of compensation and warned that the money would be paid out only if all parents agreed to the lifetime of 5. 00 families refuse the offer they were led by david mason a wealthy london art dealer and father of louise now i came under tremendous pressure i received threats on my life i had a police guard for a period of time i had anonymous phone calls i had anonymous letter. You know threats from parents her father as well publicised opposition to the compensation created problems for louise and her Care Institution up until then i was not one of the crowd but after. I was picked on and thats when i felt like i was alone in amongst a crowd. Louise escape the hostility of our classmates when her father took her out to participate in publicize the events for his campaign i was used as a as opposed to go not only because i was dorset because i had the extremes of the disability and fissioning i had great impact. David masons campaign succeeded in increasing by 6 times the Drug Companies original offer it to the parents i did pay a heavy price. But. If i hadnt paid the price the senate in my dues wouldnt have got the compensation when they got the compensation so i think it was worth. Going to my dues were becoming teenagers. Now the north Riding School and by the time he was a teenager he seemed to fit right in. As far as the whole scene of school has been i think thats the most important part is being accepted by people if youre not accepted it wont be. Worth anything it was about acceptance totally and it was about asking 2 or 3 girls out on dates to which i heard are you kidding i wanted to date just like any 16 year old but i didnt have that good fortune and of course i used to blame it on the girls and maybe it was part of them but i know it was mostly me i thought and i was going to have to be a 9 i didnt think that i was going to go on dates i didnt know what was going to happen and that thats not how it happened i had a Great High School run i mean you know i had a lot of fun my friends i had too much fun and if youre like me and my friends you drive around and look for pools and you go skinny and thats both we did. For most the little mite is getting behind the wheel of a car was the road to independence and freedom. The ways mason was determined to drive no matter how difficult it was for her just this equate to get behind the wheel and do up her seat that. Just. Want to drive these trucks who never got the shot tonight sable and. Somebody got. Texts which. Was exactly the same as everyone else theres no difference they came so natural so be driving electric wheelchairs for me most of my life and. Give me the power just because we were sharing. What the little mite is didnt know was that the drug was still in circulation though grown until i had stopped producing the drug salute him ive made an early comeback in the mid sixtys when other suppliers began manufacturing it in india and some south american countries where it had become the drug of choice for treating leprosy. So i. Know my own body and they have a good body. Was more found himself in the public limelight when he became his problems a spokesman for the Handicapped Children. Are going to be. Released i. Over the years alvin will make appearances on telephones across the country. I think going here. I. March better than others. Because a lot of helicopters. Or people get it wrong. They look at all the law and they think god its tremendous how you can do things which is. Well i suppose if you look at your feet its tremendous but these are life these are my hands too and i have been doing it forever these are not trying to speak isnt the only thing that ive got so when i pick up a coffee and i have a drink you know. Wow what a thrill. I do think i am a a king and thank you. Life wasnt so kind for another to live in my poster child louise mason continued to endure bullying from other kids at her institution for the handicapped but one day when she was 13 she was raped by another student. Louise went to a nurse for help i was shaking i was too. And. I took my underwear off and i saw blood and i tried to explain to them what happened they did nothing. Nothing to. Louise enjoyed 5 more years of fear and loneliness before finally leaving institution then like any 18 year old louise immediately started to enjoy the freedom and joy of college life. Hard just to show. It was something i shouldnt have done. So i went to the park regularly trying to save me regularly i got into trouble then it was poster boys newman. Im a is so you got to Vice President of the Student Union and got well but. Unlike louise mason who rarely saw her mother during childhood jaan shelter hill and formed a close bond with his mother from birth and her unwavering support and encouragement were critical in his career decision she never lost hope shell she said que everything you want to achieve in your life youre going to achieve it i have absolutely no doubt and where night when i turned up with their with the idea that. That i wanted to be a doctor everybody told me you should not its not a very good idea you cannot do that you will have severe problems she said son do your own thing if thats what you want to do youre going to match jani is now an emergency room doctor in switzerland i dont consider my condition as a major issue i mean im not a little margin for a spot on the 1st but im a man im trying to be a good doctor and trying to be a good husband arms and a father and a lover and i have short arms and thats it and if people have problems its accepting me or i have problems to interact with me because i have short arms its their problem its not mine after years of waiting suffering and fighting for compensation canadian victims of the little mind are finally getting the help they need from the federal government yesterday the Health Minister said survivors of the drug will receive lifelong pensions individuals can now start feeling comfortable about their future they know they have a. Amount of money coming in every year that can support them and help them. I dont know what your lives are like sometimes life can really be rough on people i understand that i get it ive been in real life alvin law is a motivational speaker whos influenced audiences in north america and australia with his message of hope is special to more than 2000000 youngsters who heard his top speaking is the best thing i couldve ever side if youre helping kids and they need to have somebody come in and tell them that its going to be ok but i get such tremendous joy out of doing it there is nothing in my life that makes me happier than speaking to kids nothing. It Coleridge Eileen Crone and fell in love with andy a graduate student in economics i was in love very definitely 1st sight. All over her. I already had a boyfriend you know i immediately was drugged or you know her vases and intelligence and her wit we moved in together. And we got pregnant very quickly. Very quickly i was wracked with worry all my life about having a child because i didnt know for sure that my mother had taken the little mind i was kind of panicked it started just settling in oh my god im going to have a baby i dont even know if i can have a baby i dont know if the baby is going to have legs or not have legs or Something Else but also literally i did not know how i was going to carry a baby in my back and so they did the ultrasound and the alter sound technician zoom dan right away found put one foot blew it up took a picture and wrote 5 and then other foot hands fingers and. I was crying and all the injured started laughing we knew that. When his 1st wife sandy became pregnant alvin law was terrified about what the future held when i saw him come out of there with 2 arms and. 2 hands and 5 little fingers on. I didnt care what randy was at all care if it was a she or he or it didnt matter. It was just the most tremendous feeling my son. And yet again. Youre not. Going back i worried a lot about how i was going to play ball with. You dont your arms to be there you dont mean arms to listen you dont need arms to be a father at all unfortunately too many fathers that have eyes to realize that. They were forget that its true you just have to be their friend. That surprised me. The tears and in our hearts out of just. This big it was a little theyre. Going to say that little boy sometimes but thats not how life works right louise mason had been a single mother for 10 years when she received a Christmas Card from an old boyfriend ive heard that louis havent been very well and kind to a Christmas Card and calm down a friend alone up at the park reignited if the best way to describe it. Kiss me goodbye and butterflies were. I was sort of floating on on a cloud. And he told his wife he was leaving. The house impact car. And then he moved danny raving to get a sense. That. Its really really fascinating i where are we communicating or youre there without even talking. With and i think we all think were made for it to that we honest. In 1997 the Thalidomide Victims Association of canada faced an agonizing choice a small American Drug Company Celgene wanted to bring thalidomide onto the market as a treatment for leprosy and cancer but needed the approval of the federal Drug Administration in washington celgene sought the support of canadian victims for its application if the little i can change for the better the life of a child with cancer then lets produce it and lets give it to these children and lets make their lives better and if its because of the price that we had to pay good then maybe we can have some solace in knowing that it wasnt all in vain in july 998 the u. S. Food and Drug Administration licensed a little mind based drug but in ose the tightest rules on it used for any drug in history officially celgene got f. D. A. Approval for thalidomide to treat lepers a miniscule American Market but the drug Company Quickly began focusing on it as a treatment from multiple myeloma a cancer of the blood cells and got approval for that use in 2006. In australia and the British Company that bought distillers were codefendants in a multimillion dollar class action suit centered on the net row case melbourne woman lynette roe is suing the drugs manufacturer green until the company wanted the case heard in germany where its never successfully being sued but the Victorian Supreme Court today dismissed that application this was an application boy the company that might lead them on the worst drug in the history of medicine to have an armless legless woman who has no money and doesnt speak german if she wishes to have it done in court have to move to germany for the next 5 years so we had diaz and groom tazo defendants. Have this never given never. Me to thing i never can say fought to the bitter end attitude the still has yet to get much more compassionate sensible way to approach which was once convinced of the strength of the climb i settled with when good intel didnt pay a cent we had to get up and fight stage that theyre every day in court where the incredible damage theyve grown toward didnt really know now that the settlement amount was a multibillion dollar some it was a sum sufficient to provide lynn with 1st class care for the rest of off it really has dramatically transformed the rugs lives grin and refused to pay a cent of the multimillion Dollar Settlement the 2 months later held a press conference so it could apologize to its victims for the 1st time in 50 years that nobody knows but they dont mean surely thats your 1st chance to get out a Long Distance between from managed to mention before. So thats an obvious leader just to fill out it because you know it was a longish talk with the size of the system and i sure dont want to be in your city by wednesday f. M. It couldnt have gone into something shocking we had to get up and fight aids day every day in court with incredible damage to grow until it got. To me many have been. Good intel is still a privately owned company the votes family owns it to die just as it did not in 60 it does not have show shareholders demanding returns the vets familys personal fortune has been variously estimated at the 23000000000 euros it would not drive that family into. Penury or bankruptcy or poverty to loosen the Purse Strings and behave in a more generous fashion towards the voters. And sell no longer makes the little mind and continues to deny most the little matters outside germany any compensation no survivors feel they received an acceptable apology. Refused to be interviewed for this film. Today celgene continues to prosper from the sale of its followed in my derived drugs to treat multiple myeloma. Prior to getting approval to bring its version of the drug back onto the market in 1998 the American Drug company was valued at 100000000. 00. Today celgene value has soared to 100000000000. 00. The original thalidomide drug is easy and cheap to manufacture and continues to be made and distributed by several Drug Companies and governments to treat leprosy unfortunately it is mostly raised in countries that often do not enforce rigorous controls and regulation as a result a little my injured babies are still in. The middle managers world wide world by the success of the net roll case i renewed efforts to fight for compensation as they battle with the continuing side effects from the. Leading lady by day. Celebrated. Jay at a popular mosque by night. His 57 years old and her playlist has almost exclusively electronic tracks how did it all start 4 years ago she tells her story on. 30 minutes d. W. Light can carry information. Scientists can help feed people. Still people can be happy without light. How much light do we really need. Weve seen the light on made in germany 90 minutes on d w. A historical turning point in politics business and religion. 97. In iran beat up people of the islamic revolution. Opens up making its initial flirtation capitalism strikes in states of emergency britain sings into chaos. John change the circumstances poland chance of the people and threatens the old order. 1979. That created todays world starts december 23rd w. This is the w. News and these are our top stories the speaker of the u. S. House of representatives nancy pelosi has announced that the house will draft articles of impeachment against President Trump speakable as he said the president abused his office over his dealings with you credit