BABIES DEFORMED AGAIN –
Feb. 22, 2024 – Since the 1970s, it has been known that sodium valproate can harm babies in the womb. So why was it prescribed to pregnant women? “My kids are fabulous, but I’d known for years that something was wrong,” she says. “They weren’t meeting milestones. There was delayed speech, slowness to crawl, not walking. There was a lot of drooling – that was really apparent. “I knew there was something wrong and I’d say it to doctors, to friends, to family, but no one was listening. I was told: ‘It’s a phase.’ ‘You’re reading too much into things.’ ‘You’re depressed.’” At times, she had wondered if her medication was to blame. “Everyone knows about thalidomide, but then I’d think: there’s no way. It can’t be. I’ve been told so many times – by midwives, by doctors, by consultants – over so many years that it was safe to keep taking.” By the time Murphy saw the news item, one of her children, Lauren, had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
“It was 10 at night, but I called the news station straight away and asked for this woman’s number,” says Murphy. “I knew I should wait until morning, but I couldn’t. Janet answered the phone and we talked for two hours.” At this point, Murphy wells up and has to pause. Then she says simply: “She saved my life.”
This call between Murphy and Janet Williams was the start of an incredible partnership. It led to the report published this month by England’s patient safety commissioner, Dr Henrietta Hughes, which recommended a compensation scheme for families of children harmed by valproate taken in pregnancy. Hughes has suggested initial payments of £100,000 and described the damage caused by the drug as “a bigger scandal than thalidomide”. It is estimated that 20,000 British children have been exposedto the drug while in the womb.
