In a small town outside of Fort Worth, Texas, a two-year-old boy sits by the window of his family room watching his three-year-old brother playing outside with tears rolling down his face. He is too little to understand that he cannot go outside because his heart is too damaged and weak for him to play in the hot summer air. He is too young to know that just by running too long or falling down too hard that he could cause his own death.
He was born with a very rare heart defect called double outlet right ventricle. That title encompasses several congenital heart defects that have caused him to have three open-heart surgeries and the installation of a pacemaker, all before his second birthday. If all goes well as he grows, he will need several additional maintenance-type surgeries to replace an artificial valve in his heart, and to replace the aging batteries in his pacemaker. If there are additional complications, more surgeries and possibly even a heart transplant could become necessary. His mother alleges that these defects were caused by the Paxil that she took while she was pregnant. Read More...
Since September, 2005 information has been emerging that Paxil may cause birth defects, including cardiac (heart), pulmonary (lung), neural-tube defects (brain and spinal cord), craniosynostosis (abnormally shaped skull) infant omphalocele (abdominal wall defects), club foot (one or both feet turn downward and inward), and anal atresia (complete or partial closure of the anus). Baum Hedlund is investigating whether or not other antidepressants such as Celexa, Effexor, Lexapro, Prozac, Symbyax and Zoloft cause these birth defects as well.
The FDA issued an alert in July 2006 warning about the increased risk of Neonatal Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension (PPHN) to babies born to mothers taking SSRI antidepressants such as Celexa (citalopram), Fluvoxamine, Lexapro (escitalopram), Paxil (paroxetine), Prozac (fluoxetine), Symbyax (olanzapine and fluoxetine) and Zoloft (sertraline).
Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman and Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson have created a joint venture in order to prosecute the firms' SSRI antidepressant heart birth defects and PPHN cases. A large team of plaintiffs' attorneys from both firms are working together on these cases including, Michael Baum, Kate Gillespie, Nicole Maldonado and George W. Murgatroyd III, from Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman based in Los Angeles, and Mark P. Robinson, Jr., Karen Barth Menzies and Jennifer Liakos from Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson based in Newport Beach, California. Both firms have many years of experience handling pharmaceutical product liability, mass tort litigation and consumer class actions against major drug companies. Anyone in need of an antidepressant birth defect lawyer should contact us for a free consultation.
Baum Hedlund is in the forefront of the SSRI-antidepressant litigation and has handled over 3,000 SSRI-antidepressant cases in the past 18 years involving antidepressants such as Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil. The firm is recognized as a preeminent plaintiff firm that handles serious personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits across the nation including cases stemming from pharmaceutical drug products liability. The firm has an active role in the fight against Big Pharma's and the FDA's attempts to stop antidepressant and other pharmaceutical litigation and has won preemption in many state and federal cases.
Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson (RCR) is one of the nation’s leading products liability and personal injury law firms and is led by Mark P. Robinson, Jr., who has achieved a stellar verdict record and has won countless attorney awards over the past three decades. RCR partner, Karen Barth Menzies, has many years experience handling antidepressant litigation and is currently co-liaison counsel in the Paxil birth defect and PPHN cases pending in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Lawsuits related to SSRI antidepressants (such as Paxil) and birth defects have been filed in many states over the past couple of years. Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson and Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman are a formidable team to aggressively lead the litigation and trial of these cases.
Heart Birth Defects: The FDA issued a Public Health Advisory for Paxil on December 8, 2005 based on U.S. and Swedish studies showing that exposure to Paxil in the first trimester of pregnancy may be associated with an increased risk of heart birth defects. Most of the cardiac defects observed in these studies were atrial or ventricular septal defects, conditions in which the wall between the right and left sides of the heart is not completely developed.
PPHN: Persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPHN) is a serious and life-threatening lung condition that occurs soon after birth of the newborn. Babies with PPHN have high pressure in their lung blood vessels and are not able to get enough oxygen into their bloodstream. About 1 to 2 babies per 1000 babies born in the U.S. develop PPHN shortly after birth, and often they need intensive medical care.
On July 19, 2006 the FDA issued a Public Health Advisory for Celexa (citalopram), Fluvoxamine, Lexapro (escitalopram), Paxil (paroxetine), Prozac (fluoxetine, Symbyax (olanzapine and fluoxetine) and Zoloft (sertraline) based on a study that suggests there may be additional risks of SSRI medications during pregnancy. In this study PPHN was six times more common in babies whose mothers took an SSRI antidepressant after the 20th week of the pregnancy compared to babies whose mothers did not take an antidepressant.