Wow. The woman in the US who fought against the drug companies to stop this drug from entering the market is the true definition of a heroine. God bless her.
@@Steve19345 No, it isn't "predatory capitaslism", that's just a cheap ideological scapegoat, an ideological excuse: some people, too many people, are, to put it very simply, "bad" people. In any system, of any kind. It is (part?) "greed" though, of course, but that's nothing exclusive to capitalism.
My first wife Elfriede was born in Germany with a missing left for-arm due to the medicine taken by her mother. Elfriede was an absolute Saint. She died July 5, 2004.
The summer of 1982 I was 6 months pregnant, my husband came home early from work crying. He threw an article down on the table and told me to read it. The article's title was "The Benedictine Scare" and showed a baby with no arms or legs....Apparently, Merrell and Dow changed one ingredient in thalidomide and put it back on the market as "Benedictine" in 1978. I got the prescription bottle of Benedictine out, and read to my husband "Quantity 20", I then poured them out and counted all 20 of them....I told him I had not taken any of them, I ate crackers and drank tea instead....He cried in relief....I am surprised there was no mention of this and how sneaky these companies are in the documentary.......The Benedictine was pulled in 1983....My daughter is a triathlete and travels the world.
Wow your story gave me chills! I'm so glad you were fortunate enough to get through pregnancy without requiring medication. I feel for women who suffer from serious morning sickness and understand why the drug industry would try to offer something. However, it's horrifying they would put something on the shelf that was obviously not fit for any human to ever use. I'm glad you had a happy ending!
my husband was born in 1959. He had three older siblings which each pregnancy my mother in law had pretty bad morning sickness... she heard about this drug and asked the doctor for it... He looked at it and said no.. not at all from me I am positive it will hurt your baby and maybe you, I can't prove it but I feel strongly and have looked into it heavily, I am being offered money to prescribe it and I would rather stop practicing medicine and do anything else before I will ever prescribe it... She is 88 years old now and still talks about it today... she feels blessed she simply had the right doctor.
When I was pregnant in the mid 80’s I was very ill with “morning sickness” , I was dehydrated and losing weight, a doctor offered me medicine but said he did not know how safe it was and might affect the baby ! This doctor must have had memories of those days ! I didn’t take anything, it was miserable but I had a healthy baby !
The pharmaceutical industry has legal protection against any substantial liability caused by the use of its toxic creations. And we the taxpayers pay any (for them) minor damages they incur that aren't so minor to their victims or the taxpayers. .... Thank Congress!
I had a math teacher on my German high school, whose mother had taken Contergan while carrying her. Even though she was missing both upper and lower arm parts (meaning her hands started right at her shoulders, missing a few fingers, and if I remember correctly her spine was missing 2 invertebral discs, which put a lot of strain on her back) she never let it hold her back. The school had a modified blackboard that she could control with her feet and she just stood really close to it and wrote on there with her fingers gripping the chalk. Sometimes some chalk would get on her shirt and she'd joke about it and she also was very open to us about her disability. She let nothing hold herself back, and as far as I know she is still happily married with kids. And she was the best math teacher I had and I managed the best marks of my short-lived math career in the years I had her as my teacher, still to this day I have the deepest respect for her and think of her fondly.
My brother was born in 1961. Whenever the subject of this horror comes up we're so thankful that drug was not allowed here or this could very well have happened to him. So sad.
Wow I didn’t realise the first baby was born affected by the drug in the 50’s . I was born September 1961 . My mother was offered it for morning sickness but my father told her not to take it . His reasoning ... you’re not the first woman to have morning sickness you won’t be the last ! Don’t you just love him 🤷♀️ thanks to my chauvinistic father I was spared this awful negligence .
Your father was right, women have dealt with morning sickness for hundreds of thousands of years before your mother. There is no valid reason why she wouldn't be able to cope with it her self, unless it was extremely intense or caused by something that could hurt the mother or the baby.
Bjarne Stronstrup sure but if you had a choice to deal with being nauseous and feeling horrible for months or getting something to help with that I’m pretty sure most people would take it.
My mother was offered this drug with her second pregnancy in 1962, but she refused believing that "no drug is safe in the first 3 months after getting pregnant" (first Trimester). How right she was!
it is common. I worked in a nursing home in a small town and we had a few patients in their 40s with Down Syndrome and other forms of mental disabilities combined with physical disabilities. People say I am cold when I say not everyone should breed, but they forget the children who suffer and forget how much it costs to pay for a life time of institutional care.
It was very common at the time. Most parents did love their children, but were pressured by their doctors and shamed by society. They thought their children would be better off there. I remember meeting a man who had one seizure as a child and spent a life time in an institution. I did a college placement at an institution that has since been shut down. I read many, many files of children with very minor disabilities.
good on you! I went to school with a girl whose plats were longer than her arms which had her wrists & hands right up near her elbows 🙁 I was always happy & friendly to her because nearly everyone ignored her or made a big deal of it & embarrassed her so I treated her like anyone else, gee she was lovely & after a little while I didn't really notice the difference.
My grandmother took Thalidomide during her pregnancy with my mother, who was born with one short arm with three fingers. She had a rough childhood, being picked on a lot. When she became an adult, she has never let it slow her down or stop her. She is one of the strongest most stubborn women I’ve ever known. ❤️💕😊
Jason Blaha I thought people from Texas were a little nicer. Also, you have a big TH-cam channel. Why would you make yourself look bad by saying this stuff? Is this your kink?
Through most of history in most places any sort of abnormality would have resulted in abandonment. Half the normal infants would die anyway, no time for problem babies.
@@StalkinU What a dumbo. Abortions are done up to week 12, some even week 20. That "clump of cells" look like a baby at week 6, have a heartbeat (that means they have a heart you idiot, something you clearly don't) by week 7. In my country the youngest baby to survive early birth was 21 weeks old. "Clump of cells", that's what YOU are. Don't ever vote!! For the love of humanity!
Bless this elderly couple who took the place in raising a child/person who has so many challenges. They had raised their own children and could have decided to retire of that, but they stepped up and gave her the best life she could have. This is very selfless and is a perfect example of service and love.
I'm 26. I've never even heard about any of this before. Thank you for making this film so the younger generation like myself can know about the horrors of what happened to these victims.
I’m turning 28 in a few days, and the most I knew of “thalidomide”, was the line “children of thalidomide” in Billy Joel’s ‘We didn’t start the fire”. 😔 This is something that should be taught!
I know someone who was born like that, he's living pretty well and has kids and everything, fortunately. His arms are very short and his hands are kinda clumsy, but he can walk a bit, but uses a wheelchair for longer ways.
I read that as “My son was born with only 3 fingers on his right hand.” And when I read “He’s just my dad.” I was very confused. Nonetheless, that was a really nice and sweet story.
I had a boyfriend who was born with nine fingers and his arm was shorter than the other , he also had a collapsed rib cage the bones only developed only one side Of the rib cage . He always tried to hide his shorter arm. He studied acting but could never get good roles because of his arm , so he because a script writer and directs films now.
Ohh... you have no idea... the things that have been done to us all, then and now. Keep researching & you'll be a changed person forever. Everything we're been told is a lie, including the education systems.
I told my son about this....and other stories of negligence by this industry....the other day when he was calling me a conspiracy theorist for not wanting a vaccine for Covid. He had absolutely no idea this had happened. Those who don't know their history are bound to repeat it....and a lot of so-called educationalists have made sure people like my son don't know about these things....
I'm an 18 year old brazilian and it's baffling how I've never heard of this. Makes me wonder about how many things from today's time will be forgotten or misremembered in the future, or even, how many harmful things we are living with today, that will only be discovered some years or decades down the line.
@@epocaBB LMAO yeah, viruses that cause mild flu-like symptoms.. shame on every country who is using a Coronavirus as a vehicle to usher in the new world order. Unbelievable. Big pharma should never be trusted, they profit when people are sick, not when they're healthy. Did you even watch this documentary? Pathetic.
Well, its examples like this why Social Democrats argue for a WELL REGULATED capitalistic system. Where I live its illegal for a company to get doctors to promote their products. Its even illegal for drug companies to argue their stuff is the best if you call them. Proper level of regulation protects the average citizen because most people, if not everyone, cant know everything. Yet in USA "parents" are expected to do so, as an excuse for companies to not care at all.
@@catrice1296 The horrendous problem is that you condone testing on animals in this day and age. I certainly wouldn't want to admit to something so cruel.
24:04 Dr Frances Kelsey is a hero. She saved several thousand American families from this stupid drug. She passed in 2015 at 101 years old. What a lady
I was born in 1960 to a mother who suffered from terrible morning sickness. But for Dr. Kelsey and the FDA, could have been me. As another commenter wrote, let's not rush too damn fast for a C-19 vaccine.
I’m so grateful for Dr. Frances Kelsey for her strong work ethics and professional scientific mindset. It worked well because FDA then also had a very strict moral and ethical dignity(at least so it seemed) However, I wonder what if the same situation rises now, would FDA work as it did back then? Unfortunately I highly doubt it... Nowadays, large pharmaceutical companies have their own people in FDA as high ranking officials, so their drugs will be approved quickly rather than slowly. Like someone said in this comment thread, I hope those decision makers in FDA will take time as they need to make sure the drug & vaccines for COVID-19 is proven to be safe before people use. After all, any health problems from the drug’s side effects are definitely responsibility of the pharmaceutical companies.
I was born in 1961. Mum my was prescribed Thalidomide for morning sickness but my dad was suspicious of the drug and ripped the prescription up in front of her.
My neighbor was the mother of one of these babies. Despite all the handicaps her daughter endured, I thank God she was born! She was the sweetest, kindest most loving little girl I ever met. "Donna" was one in a million and I loved her dearly. Her mother would never have taken Thalidomide had she known what the results would be, but her daughter was the best person I ever knew. I don't know if she's still alive, but I just wanted to say, Donna, thank you for babysitting me and singing to me when I was lonely. I love you like a sister.
My cousin is a thalidomide baby. She had one leg affected, and she is a prized member of our family. I can't imagine other families not feeling the same about their beautiful babies. Different or not, all children are beautiful and a gift.
@Simply Sasuke Most "psychopaths" don't go out of their way to hurt their family though. They learn right from wrong even if they aren't sensitive. I'm not saying there aren't kids who are difficult.
Rääpynä actually no...psychopaths don’t ever care about right or wrong. They mask their true selves from everyone but they almost always show signs from an early age. ESPECIALLY at home.
Things like this make me understand why they tell pregnant women to avoid so many things. It can feel very restrictive at times, but I would rather restrict than accidentally harm myself or child.
Carly St Yes, but I don’t wanna be pregnant ever or even have children... And f marriage, it’s a thing of the past... I’d rather adopt and still be a mother without all that other sh*t... I learned in a video that most people of Gen Z (my generation) aren’t interested in having children, it’s a good thing that we have that open mindedness. They said it was a way to combat over population, that it was nature’s way of handling it. Thanks to evolution!
My mum was prescribed Valium and some other drug, not this, when pregnant with me in the 70's. I have many medical issues that have been linked to the drugs. We didn't learn by the late 70's the lessons from the 60's, they only started learning properly in the 80's or 90's.
Akira Alexis Soyra I’m 34, and I’ve never wanted to have kids . I knew that at 10 years old . This world doesn’t need more people or children and I’m glad to find others who see it as I do
I grew up with a girl whose mother took thalidomide. Could have happened to any of us. We kids didn't care that she had no arms. To us, she was just Claire.
I did, too, in Colombia. She was one of my best friends until my parents transferred me to another school. I guess she was one of the "lucky" ones since she had legs and one "normal" arm.
yeah, i dont understand why the husband a few minutes in said they should give up, the child only had short arms like who cares? he was just like any other child and i don't understand why raising him was seen as a challenge???
Micaiah Hendrickes I think for some people having such a physically deformed child is so scary and overwhelming. It’s just too much and they can’t handle it. I think it’s more “I have absolutely no idea how to take care of you and it hurts to look st you” then “I can’t love you.”
@@ByDesign333 Religious people are more likely to kill disfigured children because they think they are "of the devil". So please, let's discard this harmful Bronze Age religion, it's sickening.
I love to see that little Junebug! I keep watching this just to see him dancing and little Alvin Law when they fitted him with artificial arms and he is trying to hold a spoon. It’s so sweet it brings tears to my eyes.
Me and my brother are both disabled (genetic condition) and found out just a decade ago that we had a disabled relative who was put in a home straight from birth. Noone in our family or any of our relatives knew about her, and her parents had never said anything. We only found out she existed when she died, she spent almost 70 years completely alone with strangers because her parents didn’t want anyone to know they had a disabled baby. Stories like these really hurt when you are disabled yourself, I’m so lucky to have had amazing parents.
The difference in hearing the one girls siblings being so cruel to her and then the home videos of the next man with his siblings being so accepting. That hurt me for her
bh1958bjbj this is all so sad! I’m glad your mother didn’t take the medicine.. I can’t believe this happened to so many children 😔 they could’ve had a way easier life. That doctors killed lots of the baby’s makes me SO extremely mad!!!
@@oliviakate4652 - You don't know the half. There are hundreds of stories like this, exposing pharmaceutical for dishonesty, for hiding the truth about one of their newer releases, promising Utopia.
In the US, school is made to produce workers and consumers. How dare they be taught to hold corporations responsible for any disastrous effects from their product. F'n "Agent Orange" is still in production. And still, Vietnam vets are not compensated for their horrible reactions to it. Spraying from airplanes a substance that will defoliate intense triple-canopy jungle. Never mind there are still troops in the areas being sprayed. Dow Chemical never held responsible for so many tragic lives debilitated by their big money maker. Just the cost of business.
Oh my dear God, I just can't even begin to imagine the guilt the mother's that took this drug, must feel. Every second of every day would haunt me! It's not their fault. But im a mother and can understand where they would blame themselves. My heart aches for them and what they must have felt and been through!
I know exactly what you mean. My son had a terrible reaction to the vaccines I consented too. Which, would be different had I not had the sense that it wasn't safe for him, I only allowed two, but that was enough to really hurt him. He ok but I'll go to jail before he gets anything else. People don't understand, think I'm just some crazy antivaxxer but the guilt of knowing you hurt your own child is, it's not something you ever really recover from.
My dad is a thalidomide baby and I can’t imagine my life as him with normal arms. My grandpa and great grandpa were both doctors and prescribed my grandma a small amount before they realized the consequences but she knew everything would be okay, and she was right. He is an amazing human being and a successful man who doesn’t see himself as disabled and neither do I. I’ve learned a lot from him and love him dearly. I never knew how many children were killed because of it but I also didn’t realize the amount of successful and amazing people who were affected
If it wasn't for the young woman saying NO to the company in the US, half of my family could have been thalidomide victims. So MANY people in the US could have been victims of thalidomide.
I had one of these children for a Teacher in high school and despite her arms she lived a very full life. If it were my child, I would have loved the baby even more.. I can't comprehend how these children were abandoned and so unwanted...
Notice how you keep referring to these babies as an it ??? Proof that ppl have been taught that ppl with disabilities are not even treated human... you used "it" as if they were a toy or something... I hope all the kids one day really 100% are fulfilled and feel like they are living their best life ...
@@cjon5456 damn, "child" is a neutral word and the fact that they're referring to a child with "it" isn't discrimination in any way. It's just a positive comment. Stop reading stuff into it that isn't written there
I tried, I really tried, but ADS EVERY SIX MINUTES was just too much for something that should be important enough to show. I was about 10 when all this happened and then I was working L&D when I had my second child. I was seeing spina bifidas, anencephalics, clubbed feet, hydrocephalics, and more every week in the hospital that I worked. Sad that TH-cam feels underwear ads are more important than history!
I was the Aunt of a young nephew who was born with deformed legs, from . my sister taking Tholidomide. He had his legs amputated below the knees and was fitted with artificial legs at age 18 months. He just passed away on New year's day from a heart attach. He was 55years old. He was a brilliant artist and has written 3 children's books. We miss him greatly.
“You don’t need arms to be a father. You don’t need arms to love him. You don’t need arms to be there. You don’t need arms to listen.” These words touched me the most. What a beautiful man and his children are so, SO lucky!
There was a man who came to my state who had no arms from thalidomide. He became a very skilled guitar player and came to my middle school when I was a kid. He talked to us about never giving up and finding our own gifts and doing our best. Then He played a concert for us-with his feet. And it was incredible to see. His stage name? “Toe Jam” 🤣 He also apparently had a great sense of humor. He made his living touring and giving inspirational talks to kids and adults alike. His real name was Tony Melendez. Think he still tours. Great guitar player, GREAT person 👍
Random rude replying commenters keep in mind. My brother and I were born 11 months apart. A vaccination that was "safe and encouraged" to take when he was born. was illegal and banned when I was born. Vaccines aren't always a end all safe thing. You gotta be cautious and do research too. Vaccinate appropriately.
@@rainbowjo00 source for this so called unsafe vaccination? Vaccinating appropriately is vaccinating with what’s recommended by the FDA on time, no ifs,ands, or buts. Oh, and, btw, Facebook isn’t a reliable source and Wakefield was a con artist trying to sell his own vaccine and no longer has a medical license, so do not cite them as sources
My mother has always been a stubborn gal, and steadfastly refused to take this drug for the severe morning sickness she was having while pregnant with me. She is 85 and takes NO meds. I went to school with a girl born with no arms...I had all my limbs. Thanks Mom❤️
@@phoenixrising441 thirty years ago the doctor wanted her on a cholesterol med because her level was too high and she would have a heart attack he said. Fast forward 30 years…she has never had a heart attack, and takes no meds. Mom knows best, lol.
I have short arms. My Mother took the drug when she was five months pregnant with me. I was not able to have children of my own and have yet to be compensated. At least I still have a brain!
I am a 43 year old woman who has never heard of this ever. What the heck, this most definitely needs to be in textbooks this needs to be taught in school this is a history that I never even knew existed. And any parent that takes a life of an infant it's not a parent of any kind and does not deserve any children!
My mom miscarried in 1953 and was given thalidomide and then she got pregnant with me. She told me when i was young that i would need to keep an eye on my thyroid because of it. One thing i do see is that the right side of my face is lower than the other...i see it could have been catastrophic! Bless you Dr. Frances❣️
Rebecca Midson, yes it is terrible! It’s not altogether shocking, though, as Germany gathered up all their physically and mentally disabled children and the doctors and nurses gassed or murdered them by drug overdose at beginning of Holocaust. They wanted to kill off everyone they deemed “unworthy”of life. Look up “eugenics”. It is EXTREMELY important to learn from history in order to never allow these horrors to be repeated.
I think that there is a major issue that the doctor has a point on. Life back then was not as easy as it was now, and having to protect and provide for a child like that is beyond the financial and emotional capacity of many if not most young families, other than the fact that the child will be suffering the entire time. You can as just easily argue that both life and death were suggested because they cared about the welfare of both the family and newborn. The war had just ended, and many were smitten in horrible ways by the likes of the communists and nazis etc., so they clearly knew there are many worse and more painful outcomes that may befall their family. Marriage, the emergence of drinking problems etc., and having a high tolerance to horrors makes it the least painful way to end it.
When my Mum was pregnant with me she suffered from morning sickness, she was offered Distaval and was grateful that something could be done for the excessive vomiting which was exhausting her. She opened the packet and was reading the instructions when she heard her own mother talking (she wasn't long dead)) She distinctly heard her voice saying "Never take medicine when you're pregnant" She spun around expecting to see her Mum but of course, there was nobody there. Anyway, she was so disturbed by the message that she flushed the tablets down the loo, thinking she was hearing things. Suffice to say, the message from my dead grandmother gave me a very different life from how it could have been.
During my first pregnancy I became obsessed with this. It was the horror I woke up to in the middle of the night. These people were meant to have arms and legs like the rest of us!
I was born in the late 50's and am a Thalidomide baby. My deformity is I have no frontal, sphenoid or ethmoid sinuses. My maxillary sinuses are ultra small. Of course this leads to all kinds of nasal infection issues in the nasal ducts, etc. I consider myself so very fortunate it didn't effect the development of my limbs more than my arms are a bit shorter than normal & my little toes are sideways.
This was so well-filmed, timed, spaced, and filled with interest that it seemed like a 2 hour movie. I learned an incredible amount that didn't feel rushed in any way. Well done.
Renee S same here, I love documentaries like this, I’m a history fiend but I didn’t know that this excited until recently. Very sad but very interesting.
My mother and her doctor discussed my mother taking this drug when she was pregnant with me, but they decided against it because her symptoms weren't that bad. I was born in 1960. I've always felt I dodged a bullet.
Same thing with my grandmother, although she did take it for a little while before stopping. My mom turned out completely fine, she was definitely a lucky one.
I love the man who became a director and bought a castle!! He’s so real about the feelings and wanting revenge for the horrid deaths and disabilities they caused all those babies
So that one British women’s dad locked her away in a boarding school where she was only allowed to visit her family 3 weeks a year but was used as the “poster child” for her fathers campaign against the drug that caused this disability to her so that the parents could receive compensation for the burden this drug caused while they shut her away for her entire childhood. That’s absolutely disgusting. Please correct me if I misunderstood what happened.
No you understood it correctly. I thought it was a crying shame that she had to be away from her family like that. To be honest I think that her parents were ashamed of her. The poor dear must have been so very lonely.
@@inanimateuser9828 it's what the British royals do. Also many British MDS I worked with here in Canada, also spent their years in boarding school. Only the poor went to the local public school.
My Mum moved out to Canada from Scotland and was offered thalidomide during her pregnancy. Because Scotland had been questioning it's use, she refused. Thank goodness
starting at 14:00 , the happy baby montage :D with love and care, everyone can thrive, i wish more people understood that the disabled and ill are people too and deserve the same liberties as the average person without a handicap!!!
@ 13:57 " dad you gotta bring that baby home!" The following home cine footage made me smile and laugh but with tears in my eyes. Such a happy baby and what a wonderful family
Me too! 😃 He looked like a very loved and happy baby. I don’t think I remember my own son being so happy. But then again he was born in 1996. I was probably working and the day care got to enjoy those moments. 😔
Me too! Such a beautiful selfless family! If every parent loved their child for who they are and not what they look like or makes them different there would be so many more success stories like these. Love & acceptance makes all the difference in the world. God sent these children into the world for a reason. To love & be loved. And we all have something to teach & give...
If it was tested on slaves, I wonder how much they knew from the beginning, and why it was this particular drug that they pushed to the market. Did it work on morning sickness? Did they explain the deformed babies with something else like lack of nutrition? Was it a plot or a revenge?
Apologize? They didn’t hit a car on traffic they ruined these poor people’s lives. Killed babies, caused unneeded problems in families and trauma. They deserve no forgiveness.
I was a teenager when the problem blew up here in 1961. I also remember when President Kennedy presented The Medal of Freedom to Dr. Frances Kelsey. Without this very tenacious woman, the United States would have had the same population of thalidomide babies. Everyone should remember the name of this great woman.🌹👍
Especially when you figure in that when a woman showed strength back then they were disrespected and ignored. I'm grateful that she stood up for what was right. I was a 1964 baby.
I have never forgotten my little best friend called Emma when we were about 5 yrs old and my mother told me later I was extremely protective of her.. She was a thalodomide baby in 1965 when I knew her. Ive often wondered where she is and what became of her. When you are pregnant, do not take chemicals.. For generations our grandmothers n great grandmother's had natural foods, did their house work and rested and delivered at home. Todays world is just about money and deadly chemicals prescribed by the docs with no mention of the side effects. Carry your baby eating healthy, walk and do light work and rest when your body tells you to. Think positive... Stay off chemicals, cigarettes, drinks and drugs.🙏🙏
My mother was offered Thalidomide for morning sickness when pregnant with me, she refused, she took no medication throughout each of her three pregnancies...Her doctor who was a lovely gentle man (and for UK readers my mother told us he was the double of Noel Edmunds)...he never got over the fact he offered woman this drug and later committed suicide...at the time in the area I was born (west of scotland) quite a number of Thalidomide babies were born..although my mother's doctor obviously wasn't to blame for all thalidomide children born n the west of Scotland he lived with a terrible guilt.
Hi, Maggie. I'm in Glasgow. I'm glad your Mum didn't take it. How awful for her doctor. He really was a good soul. What a tragic story for him and all those folk who grew up with the thalidomide legacy.
No-one knows how many miscarriages the drug caused, but it's estimated that, in Germany alone, 10,000 babies were born affected by Thalidomide. Many were too damaged to survive for long. Today, fewer than 3,000 are still alive.
I always wondered what happened, because when I was a child it was not unusual to see grwon up Thalidomide childern ("Contergan-Kinder" in Germany) every once in a while, but it's been quite a while since I last saw one... Guess they died...
@@ShamelessBarbz we regard disability as a culture differently...i am just wondering how this relates to disability activism specifically - like what activists? What protests?
Yanasoo Sibarah I imagine there has been a lot of activism since that year to change the predominant mindset of people. Social change doesn’t just happen out of no where.
@@ShamelessBarbz I just find it an odd thing to say if the documentary doesn't mention activism...perhaps it depends how literal the original comment is read.
At 22 years old why did i never hear about this in high school or college. This was a global problem. That drug damaged generations and more than likely because of the companies wealth, they were able to get a ridiculous deal.
not sure which country you are from, I am from england/uk and this is one thing I learnt from one my teachers in high school, one of my history teachers once said that there is so much history that in the few years you might get taught history it is not enough time to be able to teach every bit of history as far as I remember even with me taking history as a GCSE, end of english high school exams, I was taught history for maybe 8 years some of my friends got taught history for about 6 years roughly depending on the school you go to, here in England, they teach you the bigger things, like the 2 world wars, some of the kings and queen's, battle of hastings, and a handful of other things, so unfortunately we never get the full picture and since most people don't like learning about history will not go out of their way to go to their local library for history books and learn things that don't get taught in school, in my last 2 years of high school I got taught more about usa history than I did uk history so you also not only have history from your own country, in my case England/UK, you also have history from all the other countries so a huge load of history can't realistically be taught in such a short time as 6 years in my friends cases or 8 years in my case, so as a result I only learnt about this within the last 3-4 years when I learnt about it on here.
Every time I hear the phrase ‘trust the science’ this is what comes to mind for me. If we all ‘trusted the science’ and didn’t question anything, this would be the future of over half the world right now. So sad that this happened to these people 😞
every baby was beautiful and most of them looked happy when they were babies. I can't imagine killing babies that beautiful or any baby at all. What a heartless and sick thing to do to try to cover their actions like that.
I am a doctor and I was educated on this issue. They fail to explain that the issue with thalidomide is that there are always 2 types of a molecule in any chemical process (left and right), and they assumed that both versions of thalidomide were equally safe and effective. This wasn't the case. Since then, testing and chemical separation of the two types of molecules has become standard in farmaceutics. I know this doesn't provide any solace to the victims, no apology is enough. I am saddened about this story, in my country it was a very severe issue as well. I am grateful that the medical sciences learned from it at least.
These people are absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing all of their stories. Alvin is an absolute gem, and I had actually heard of Louise's father- I had heard that his activism was responsible for getting the UK's thalidomide children compensation, but I did not know that he had put his child in such an awful, traumatizing situation. I am so sorry for what she went through, and she was an amazingly strong woman.
here's a fun fact. Thalidomide is still used in Medicine to treat the hematological disorder, Multiple Myeloma. It works but any woman taking the drug must get pregnancy tests to ensure that this doesnt happen again
Accutane is the same way. Luckily we have much better skincare like proactive and murad now and if I would have had murad and known about the way zinc helps slow excess oil production both when taken orally and applied topically..I would likely not have had to go on accutane twice. You have to stick with it, but murad has pretty much cured my acne. I dont know if taking zinc supplements daily for extended periods is bad for you. It seems like it could be, and dont take too much because t will give you the runs. But if I just take a zinc capsule apart and mix a tiny bit into my murad moisturizer (and using the whole kit) twice a day, I'm not greasy and my skin clears up
yes that was amazing to see ❤❤ I feel sad for Louise whose parents put her in an institution 😢😢 but she is truly a beautiful woman ❤️ well let me say they are all beautiful people ❤
My wife was born and raised in a small town in southern Germany, Neckartenzlingen, and her next door neighbor was offered this horrible drug during her pregnancy and was close to taking it. She refused when one of the doctors in the hospital told her that it was fairly new at the time and that he simply didn't feel comfortable yet offering it to pregnant patients since it was so new. That doctor saved my wife's neighbor/friend from a lifetime of pain and suffering without even knowing it at the time.
I was a Thalidomide baby. I was born without my lower left leg, my big toe on my right foot and without my ring finger and pinky on my left hand. I was lucky. My mom was apparently further along in her pregnancy when she took it. I too went to a school that had half disabled, half "normal" (as we called it) kids. I was on the disabled side of the school. Except I never saw myself as handicapped. I done everything anyone else did except riding a bicycle. This was the only thing I didn't learn to do. It would be cool to talk to others who were affected by this drug.
I can’t imagine a life without my arms. All of these people are so strong, and deserve to be recognized by modern education. Sadly, I’ve never heard of this before in my life.
As someone who's disabled, let me tell you it sucks and it's scary when you first become disabled (assuming you weren't born with your disability), but then you move on and get on with your life with some workarounds. You, I assume, were born without the ability to run 60mph, so you bought a car (assuming you have a car). It's no different for disabled people getting their needs met. The only difference is able-bodied people 1) see the disability like it's a massive issue and must be terrible and 2) have built the world to their needs and not been inclusive.
@@hamsterpouches I've been disabled for about 5 years and yes it sucks but life goes on and you , I, and everyone just gets on with life , not a lot of options otherwise is there . It is what it is .🌷✌
Wow. The woman in the US who fought against the drug companies to stop this drug from entering the market is the true definition of a heroine. God bless her.
I read Heroin lol, yeah im not English so sorry not sorry
ToyaToms iii 🤞🏻🤞🏻
@@paffie9319 unfortunately for every win their six losers.
@@yesiiii2389Don't compare you disgusting anti-vaxxers to anyone heroic. You might as well be flat earthers.
cyanofelis Your comment is funny to me because there was a time people acted like you when they insisted the earth *WASN’T* flat.
My mother was offered Thalidomide while she was carrying me. She said, no, thank you. God bless my Mom.
Judi yes you got a wise Mom
Anne it’s more of having good intuition than being wise. Most people didn’t know the consequences, but it’s different for every story.
My mother refused all medicines when she was pregnant with me. Thank goodness!
Good attitude 👍
@ Judi Lynn Same here.
"ignored early warning signs." That's what cuts so deeply. They knew early on and didn't care.
That's greed and predatory capitalism. No one's in a hurry to stop a gravy train of money coming in.
I think it’s not that, they may have had so much room they did not want to waste it on early signs
And still do and still don't
@@Steve19345 No, it isn't "predatory capitaslism", that's just a cheap ideological scapegoat, an ideological excuse: some people, too many people, are, to put it very simply, "bad" people. In any system, of any kind. It is (part?) "greed" though, of course, but that's nothing exclusive to capitalism.
@@Fergutor you're exactly right. I wish I could give you more thumbs up!!!
My first wife Elfriede was born in Germany with a missing left for-arm due to the medicine taken by her mother. Elfriede was an absolute Saint. She died July 5, 2004.
Sorry for your loss Robert, I hope you found someone like your 1st wife.
May she rest in peace!
Rip
So sorry 😟😟😟
God rest her soul.
This is the sort of thing that ought to be taught in history classes.
I imagine it is taught in biology or chemistry, a lot of people know about it but they don't dig too deep.
We learnt about it in chemistry, not a lot though. But would have been great to have seen this documentary!
I learned about it in science
Karen Ramnath
Some might learn in college , if they take some sort of pharmacology or sociology of medicine course .
I’m learning about it in history but it might be a different curriculum cuz I live in England, I don’t know where any of you are living so
The summer of 1982 I was 6 months pregnant, my husband came home early from work crying. He threw an article down on the table and told me to read it. The article's title was "The Benedictine Scare" and showed a baby with no arms or legs....Apparently, Merrell and Dow changed one ingredient in thalidomide and put it back on the market as "Benedictine" in 1978. I got the prescription bottle of Benedictine out, and read to my husband "Quantity 20", I then poured them out and counted all 20 of them....I told him I had not taken any of them, I ate crackers and drank tea instead....He cried in relief....I am surprised there was no mention of this and how sneaky these companies are in the documentary.......The Benedictine was pulled in 1983....My daughter is a triathlete and travels the world.
good for you morning sickness is a normal part of pregnancy
Stand Down *Bendectin
Wow your story gave me chills! I'm so glad you were fortunate enough to get through pregnancy without requiring medication. I feel for women who suffer from serious morning sickness and understand why the drug industry would try to offer something. However, it's horrifying they would put something on the shelf that was obviously not fit for any human to ever use. I'm glad you had a happy ending!
What an awesome story! Wow 😯
Wow that is crazy, you were so lucky. Sad thing is it's not shocking humans are greedy despicable things😞
my husband was born in 1959. He had three older siblings which each pregnancy my mother in law had pretty bad morning sickness... she heard about this drug and asked the doctor for it... He looked at it and said no.. not at all from me I am positive it will hurt your baby and maybe you, I can't prove it but I feel strongly and have looked into it heavily, I am being offered money to prescribe it and I would rather stop practicing medicine and do anything else before I will ever prescribe it... She is 88 years old now and still talks about it today... she feels blessed she simply had the right doctor.
cocospots Absolutely dodged a bullet. Kudos to that insightful physician.
Wow!!! A big Thank You , to that doctor ❤
cocospots My mother is the same age and had the same experience when she was pregnant with my sister, who was born in January of 1960.
I'm sure this doctor has a special place in heaven
When I was pregnant in the mid 80’s I was very ill with “morning sickness” , I was dehydrated and losing weight, a doctor offered me medicine but said he did not know how safe it was and might affect the baby ! This doctor must have had memories of those days !
I didn’t take anything, it was miserable but I had a healthy baby !
No matter how disabled a child is he or she deserves to live & be loved.
Very true but what a wicked man to let this happen.
In all seriousness, we can more easily say that now, society being what it is.
even if it's incest???? bruhhhh
All lives matter.
100 percent
My mother was offered Thalidomide when she was expecting me but decided against it.Thanks Mum.
With ya there. Kudos to your mom!!
Ditto with my mom. She wanted to feel a natural childbirth.
Same here. So thankful my mum was strong
My grandma decided against it, too! Thank gof
Wow. You and your mom are blessed.
The CEOs of these plant should have been charged with Crimes against Humanity...its unbelievable how many babies had to be hurt in the wake of greed
Sincerely
The pharmaceutical industry has legal protection against any substantial liability caused by the use of its toxic creations. And we the taxpayers pay any (for them) minor damages they incur that aren't so minor to their victims or the taxpayers. .... Thank Congress!
GO BACK AND WATCH THE THING AGAIN
THEY WERE CHARGED!!!!
It was a joke.
@@Narrow-Pather Watch out for this vaccine they're putting on "warp speed."
Money talks. If the west was so just, 99% of Western companies would be in Geneva facing war crime trials.
‘You don’t have to have arms to be a father, and unfortunately a lot of fathers with arms forget that’ 😭😭😭 he seems like such a good dad!
My father forgot that!! 😢😢
Denise Trayah i’m sorry 💕 I hope you have a great mom
Keep it up.
You are courageous people what matters is, not giving up in life.
And the strong will they had from people staring, makes them a thousand times the demonic scum who deliberately created this abomination.
I had a math teacher on my German high school, whose mother had taken Contergan while carrying her. Even though she was missing both upper and lower arm parts (meaning her hands started right at her shoulders, missing a few fingers, and if I remember correctly her spine was missing 2 invertebral discs, which put a lot of strain on her back) she never let it hold her back. The school had a modified blackboard that she could control with her feet and she just stood really close to it and wrote on there with her fingers gripping the chalk. Sometimes some chalk would get on her shirt and she'd joke about it and she also was very open to us about her disability. She let nothing hold herself back, and as far as I know she is still happily married with kids. And she was the best math teacher I had and I managed the best marks of my short-lived math career in the years I had her as my teacher, still to this day I have the deepest respect for her and think of her fondly.
Was the producer of this drug penalized?
0
I can’t imagine not loving a child just because they didn’t have arms or legs :(
Same
Ikr
I would love my baby NO MATTER WHAT!
Things were different back then
Doctors often suggest abortion when they see babies without arms/legs/down syndrome etc :(. Horrible!
God bless the lady who refused to allow thalidomide in the US.
My best friends older brother is a thalidomide baby. Her father was in the military. They gave it to a lot of military wives.
My mum refused it in England, 1961 and I am here very healthy.
Her name Lacy?
Kelsey award from President Kennedy
My brother was born in 1961. Whenever the subject of this horror comes up we're so thankful that drug was not allowed here or this could very well have happened to him. So sad.
Wow I didn’t realise the first baby was born affected by the drug in the 50’s . I was born September 1961 . My mother was offered it for morning sickness but my father told her not to take it . His reasoning ... you’re not the first woman to have morning sickness you won’t be the last ! Don’t you just love him 🤷♀️ thanks to my chauvinistic father I was spared this awful negligence .
Bless your father!
Your father was right, women have dealt with morning sickness for hundreds of thousands of years before your mother. There is no valid reason why she wouldn't be able to cope with it her self, unless it was extremely intense or caused by something that could hurt the mother or the baby.
And the morning sickness eases down as time passes. It's best to just go through it and learn to handle it.
Rubella &disibility
Bjarne Stronstrup sure but if you had a choice to deal with being nauseous and feeling horrible for months or getting something to help with that I’m pretty sure most people would take it.
My mother was offered this drug with her second pregnancy in 1962, but she refused believing that "no drug is safe in the first 3 months after getting pregnant" (first Trimester). How right she was!
The love of money is the most terrifying monster in the world.
Nope. Pronatalism is.
Agreed
@Stoli Blue not all doctors
Yeah, it hides behind the word "freedom". or "America".
💯‼
Imagine being completely sound of mind but being locked away in an institution away from your family because your limbs look different?! I just can't.
it is common. I worked in a nursing home in a small town and we had a few patients in their 40s with Down Syndrome and other forms of mental disabilities combined with physical disabilities. People say I am cold when I say not everyone should breed, but they forget the children who suffer and forget how much it costs to pay for a life time of institutional care.
It's crazy and scary
@@lechsiz1642 I am with you. Having a child is a lifetime decision and some people really cant handle this responsibility
Maybe they thought the child had a better chance of surviving in the institute.. idk
It was very common at the time. Most parents did love their children, but were pressured by their doctors and shamed by society. They thought their children would be better off there. I remember meeting a man who had one seizure as a child and spent a life time in an institution. I did a college placement at an institution that has since been shut down. I read many, many files of children with very minor disabilities.
I’m going to ask my English teacher if I can write a paper on this for extra credit. This NEEDS to be talked about more.
That's a great idea!
How did it go?
Good for you! it DOES need to be talked about more
If you look on Netflix there's is a series called I believe... the midwife they touch base on this subject slot
good on you! I went to school with a girl whose plats were longer than her arms which had her wrists & hands right up near her elbows 🙁 I was always happy & friendly to her because nearly everyone ignored her or made a big deal of it & embarrassed her so I treated her like anyone else, gee she was lovely & after a little while I didn't really notice the difference.
15:05 When the lady said no one said anything when the baby was born, "it was loud silence" what a great way to explain it. I felt that
My grandmother took Thalidomide during her pregnancy with my mother, who was born with one short arm with three fingers. She had a rough childhood, being picked on a lot. When she became an adult, she has never let it slow her down or stop her. She is one of the strongest most stubborn women I’ve ever known. ❤️💕😊
JnPSteen
Awe:)
Good for her. I bet she's an awesome lady!
God bless that woman she's a legend
Jason Blaha I thought people from Texas were a little nicer. Also, you have a big TH-cam channel. Why would you make yourself look bad by saying this stuff? Is this your kink?
@@JnPReviews ignore Jason Blaha....some people don't know any better 😊
Day 4 of being quarantined and i somehow ended up here ...
Anyone else?
🙋🏿♀️
Me too. Denver officially as of today,,, mandatory lockdown ORDER starting tomorrow at 5pm..... Through April 10th or later if need be. I'm so mad.
Yep! Me too! I am in the United States and this is day 10 for my husband,two kids and myself.
Yep exactly me right now
Same here in Indianapolis
"Just get another child. Throw it away."
I immediately started to cry. That is a horrifying sentence.
It's commonly practiced as "abortion". Except most cases they're not trying to get another child, they just want to throw away theirs.
sure u started to cry
Through most of history in most places any sort of abnormality would have resulted in abandonment. Half the normal infants would die anyway, no time for problem babies.
@Kage Luke Its also different because the fact abortions aren't done on life capable babies but on a lumb of cells that will soon be a baby.
@@StalkinU What a dumbo. Abortions are done up to week 12, some even week 20. That "clump of cells" look like a baby at week 6, have a heartbeat (that means they have a heart you idiot, something you clearly don't) by week 7. In my country the youngest baby to survive early birth was 21 weeks old. "Clump of cells", that's what YOU are. Don't ever vote!! For the love of humanity!
Bless this elderly couple who took the place in raising a child/person who has so many challenges. They had raised their own children and could have decided to retire of that, but they stepped up and gave her the best life she could have. This is very selfless and is a perfect example of service and love.
I'm 26. I've never even heard about any of this before. Thank you for making this film so the younger generation like myself can know about the horrors of what happened to these victims.
I'm also 26 but German. Since it was a German drug it is talked about a lot here
Im 32 and didn't know this was a thing 😮
36 here and also hadn’t heard of it,
I’m turning 28 in a few days, and the most I knew of “thalidomide”, was the line “children of thalidomide” in Billy Joel’s ‘We didn’t start the fire”. 😔 This is something that should be taught!
I know someone who was born like that, he's living pretty well and has kids and everything, fortunately. His arms are very short and his hands are kinda clumsy, but he can walk a bit, but uses a wheelchair for longer ways.
My dad was born with only 3 fingers on his right hand. He is so embarrassed about it. I’ve never noticed it really. He’s just my dad.
EmRe Photography aw that made me tear up
A beautiful thing to say about your dad... Who we really are is so much more than what we look like on the outside!
I read that as “My son was born with only 3 fingers on his right hand.” And when I read “He’s just my dad.” I was very confused. Nonetheless, that was a really nice and sweet story.
My brother was only born with 3 fingers on his right hand.
I had a boyfriend who was born with nine fingers and his arm was shorter than the other , he also had a collapsed rib cage the bones only developed only one side Of the rib cage . He always tried to hide his shorter arm. He studied acting but could never get good roles because of his arm , so he because a script writer and directs films now.
I can’t believe I’m learning about this just now! Shame on our education system
Ohh... you have no idea... the things that have been done to us all, then and now. Keep researching & you'll be a changed person forever. Everything we're been told is a lie, including the education systems.
L G yes you’re absolutely right 🙏🏻
Read some books. Try some non-fiction.
I told my son about this....and other stories of negligence by this industry....the other day when he was calling me a conspiracy theorist for not wanting a vaccine for Covid. He had absolutely no idea this had happened. Those who don't know their history are bound to repeat it....and a lot of so-called educationalists have made sure people like my son don't know about these things....
Janet Mozelewski you’re absolutely right...I wouldn’t take covid vaccine as well
I'm an 18 year old brazilian and it's baffling how I've never heard of this. Makes me wonder about how many things from today's time will be forgotten or misremembered in the future, or even, how many harmful things we are living with today, that will only be discovered some years or decades down the line.
Um maybe how every single country in the world downplayed the numbers to a stupendous extent of people having died from Covid_19?
Brazil pays a good value of indenization and pension tô everyone born with deformity from this medicine taken buy mothers back then
Ya, it's called "covid19 vaccine".
@@epocaBB LMAO yeah, viruses that cause mild flu-like symptoms.. shame on every country who is using a Coronavirus as a vehicle to usher in the new world order. Unbelievable. Big pharma should never be trusted, they profit when people are sick, not when they're healthy. Did you even watch this documentary? Pathetic.
@@SunkissedMalice research a l l vax, children
This story is just so sad. Horrible companies and people who never took action to investigate right away, then continued to keep up the sham.
Well, its examples like this why Social Democrats argue for a WELL REGULATED capitalistic system. Where I live its illegal for a company to get doctors to promote their products. Its even illegal for drug companies to argue their stuff is the best if you call them. Proper level of regulation protects the average citizen because most people, if not everyone, cant know everything. Yet in USA "parents" are expected to do so, as an excuse for companies to not care at all.
No kidding I’m doing a research project on animal testing right now and thalidomide popped up and is just horrendous.
@@catrice1296 The horrendous problem is that you condone testing on animals in this day and age. I certainly wouldn't want to admit to something so cruel.
Danni maybe she doesn’t condone it. She’s researching the topic.. we don’t know how she feels about it.
I got you to 999 likes, so close to 1k.
24:04 Dr Frances Kelsey is a hero. She saved several thousand American families from this stupid drug. She passed in 2015 at 101 years old. What a lady
Don’t forget how the FDA actually stood behind her, because they had confidence in who they hired. Imagine if all companies were like that
What a hero🙏🏻✌🏻️👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
EXCEPTIONAL lady
Your comment says it all
Thank you 🌹🌹🌹
I was born in 1960 to a mother who suffered from terrible morning sickness. But for Dr. Kelsey and the FDA, could have been me. As another commenter wrote, let's not rush too damn fast for a C-19 vaccine.
I’m so grateful for Dr. Frances Kelsey for her strong work ethics and professional scientific mindset. It worked well because FDA then also had a very strict moral and ethical dignity(at least so it seemed) However, I wonder what if the same situation rises now, would FDA work as it did back then? Unfortunately I highly doubt it... Nowadays, large pharmaceutical companies have their own people in FDA as high ranking officials, so their drugs will be approved quickly rather than slowly. Like someone said in this comment thread, I hope those decision makers in FDA will take time as they need to make sure the drug & vaccines for COVID-19 is proven to be safe before people use. After all, any health problems from the drug’s side effects are definitely responsibility of the pharmaceutical companies.
I was born in 1961. Mum my was prescribed Thalidomide for morning sickness but my dad was suspicious of the drug and ripped the prescription up in front of her.
Had it been any 'safe' prescription, that'd be viewed as abusive. Glad you were spared, tho.
Smart man.
Hello Amanda Tate, this is Angie Iris Tate....and that is wonderful to hear.!!!
Well done dad
Wow!! You dodged a bullet
My neighbor was the mother of one of these babies. Despite all the handicaps her daughter endured, I thank God she was born! She was the sweetest, kindest most loving little girl I ever met. "Donna" was one in a million and I loved her dearly. Her mother would never have taken Thalidomide had she known what the results would be, but her daughter was the best person I ever knew. I don't know if she's still alive, but I just wanted to say, Donna, thank you for babysitting me and singing to me when I was lonely. I love you like a sister.
My cousin is a thalidomide baby. She had one leg affected, and she is a prized member of our family. I can't imagine other families not feeling the same about their beautiful babies. Different or not, all children are beautiful and a gift.
100%
Beautifully said friend!
@Simply Sasuke Most "psychopaths" don't go out of their way to hurt their family though. They learn right from wrong even if they aren't sensitive. I'm not saying there aren't kids who are difficult.
Yes, but a drug company intentionally harmed fetuses for profit.
Rääpynä actually no...psychopaths don’t ever care about right or wrong. They mask their true selves from everyone but they almost always show signs from an early age. ESPECIALLY at home.
Things like this make me understand why they tell pregnant women to avoid so many things. It can feel very restrictive at times, but I would rather restrict than accidentally harm myself or child.
Carly St Yes, but I don’t wanna be pregnant ever or even have children... And f marriage, it’s a thing of the past... I’d rather adopt and still be a mother without all that other sh*t... I learned in a video that most people of Gen Z (my generation) aren’t interested in having children, it’s a good thing that we have that open mindedness. They said it was a way to combat over population, that it was nature’s way of handling it. Thanks to evolution!
My mum was prescribed Valium and some other drug, not this, when pregnant with me in the 70's. I have many medical issues that have been linked to the drugs. We didn't learn by the late 70's the lessons from the 60's, they only started learning properly in the 80's or 90's.
Akira Alexis Soyra I’m 34, and I’ve never wanted to have kids . I knew that at 10 years old . This world doesn’t need more people or children and I’m glad to find others who see it as I do
@@HaLLiEB85 but aren't u scared of growing old alone
_Immie_ nope . I don’t plan on growing old anyways
I grew up with a girl whose mother took thalidomide. Could have happened to any of us. We kids didn't care that she had no arms. To us, she was just Claire.
I did, too, in Colombia. She was one of my best friends until my parents transferred me to another school. I guess she was one of the "lucky" ones since she had legs and one "normal" arm.
yeah, i dont understand why the husband a few minutes in said they should give up, the child only had short arms like who cares? he was just like any other child and i don't understand why raising him was seen as a challenge???
@@アリス-h9t . We don't have to understand. That's what it was like in that time.
abi gail it’s great that you treated her that way. Sadly not all kids who are different are treated nicely
@@アリス-h9t I think he meant give up on trying to find out what had caused it, not give up on the child.
Did not search for this but recommended on TH-cam, I don't even know what is thalidomide before. Thanks too TH-cam I have learnt a great lesson
I *sort of* understand it was a different time.. but I couldn’t imagine not loving my baby because it didn’t have arms or legs.
Ikr...bible says ppl will lose their natural affections...thakfully u still have yours....and others do too. 💖
I know it’s so sad they talked about this in a show I watch called “call the midwife” and the origin and how the parents would react. 😭
karlie jeikowki I also watch that! Breaks my heart though.
Micaiah Hendrickes I think for some people having such a physically deformed child is so scary and overwhelming. It’s just too much and they can’t handle it. I think it’s more “I have absolutely no idea how to take care of you and it hurts to look st you” then “I can’t love you.”
@@ByDesign333 Religious people are more likely to kill disfigured children because they think they are "of the devil". So please, let's discard this harmful Bronze Age religion, it's sickening.
The baby dancing was the cutest thing I ever seen lol
Can see he was a super happy baby
@@nickinite8211 yes
Yep super cute
Highly agree!
Ikr soo cute ❤ㅠ. ㅠ
The dancing baby was so sweet. His siblings look like they loved him very much. What a sweet home movie
I agree with you so nice to see
Judy Lynn I agree.. that bright a big smile to my face
I love to see that little Junebug! I keep watching this just to see him dancing and little Alvin Law when they fitted him with artificial arms and he is trying to hold a spoon. It’s so sweet it brings tears to my eyes.
Yeah. I could watch him boogie again for sure. Really adorable.
He's absolutely gorgeous...
Me and my brother are both disabled (genetic condition) and found out just a decade ago that we had a disabled relative who was put in a home straight from birth. Noone in our family or any of our relatives knew about her, and her parents had never said anything. We only found out she existed when she died, she spent almost 70 years completely alone with strangers because her parents didn’t want anyone to know they had a disabled baby.
Stories like these really hurt when you are disabled yourself, I’m so lucky to have had amazing parents.
❤
The difference in hearing the one girls siblings being so cruel to her and then the home videos of the next man with his siblings being so accepting. That hurt me for her
Kids are just cruel. Not all of them but a lot of them. Especially when they're faced with something as extreme as someone lacking limbs.
Was her Parents fault, 100%.
My Mother couldn't take that medicine because my parents could not afford it. I am the youngest at 1958 my sibling could have been born disfigured.
bh1958bjbj this is all so sad! I’m glad your mother didn’t take the medicine.. I can’t believe this happened to so many children 😔 they could’ve had a way easier life. That doctors killed lots of the baby’s makes me SO extremely mad!!!
Well now Aren’t you glad being too poor to afford it.
Wow. Ironic. Rarely does being too poor offer a solution to something much worse. God bless your mom and dad and your siblings.
@@oliviakate4652 - You don't know the half. There are hundreds of stories like this, exposing pharmaceutical for dishonesty, for hiding the truth about one of their newer releases, promising Utopia.
i love this quote "When you don't get something, that's God's protection... when you get something else, that's God's direction"
💔 it’s 2020 & I feel uneducated.... this was not talked about in school
I feel very uneducated as well
I know me either this is awful I can't belive I NEVER heard about this
In the US, school is made to produce workers and consumers. How dare they be taught to hold corporations responsible for any disastrous effects from their product.
F'n "Agent Orange" is still in production. And still, Vietnam vets are not compensated for their horrible reactions to it. Spraying from airplanes a substance that will defoliate intense triple-canopy jungle. Never mind there are still troops in the areas being sprayed. Dow Chemical never held responsible for so many tragic lives debilitated by their big money maker. Just the cost of business.
I was taught this when i took med term in highshool
Same. But i still get to drown in homework right? I have gotten more work these last 2 weeks than in a month normally. 🙃
Oh my dear God, I just can't even begin to imagine the guilt the mother's that took this drug, must feel. Every second of every day would haunt me! It's not their fault. But im a mother and can understand where they would blame themselves. My heart aches for them and what they must have felt and been through!
It did my mother died of a young age to me she was just 69 because over depression I believe sometimes I feel I was a constant reminder
A reminder of what?
You were an innocent child and are not responsible for how you were perceived .
I’m sure your mother’s depression had nothing to do with you.
I know exactly what you mean. My son had a terrible reaction to the vaccines I consented too. Which, would be different had I not had the sense that it wasn't safe for him, I only allowed two, but that was enough to really hurt him. He ok but I'll go to jail before he gets anything else. People don't understand, think I'm just some crazy antivaxxer but the guilt of knowing you hurt your own child is, it's not something you ever really recover from.
My grandmother told me about this. She said she was glad she was poor enough not to be able to take meds like this.
My dad is a thalidomide baby and I can’t imagine my life as him with normal arms. My grandpa and great grandpa were both doctors and prescribed my grandma a small amount before they realized the consequences but she knew everything would be okay, and she was right. He is an amazing human being and a successful man who doesn’t see himself as disabled and neither do I. I’ve learned a lot from him and love him dearly. I never knew how many children were killed because of it but I also didn’t realize the amount of successful and amazing people who were affected
but he is disabled
@@blob5907 you are very insensitive
@@blob5907 Foda-se você
@@catherinemcalpin9096 no you
@@blob5907 yeah, he is! But still human, with a family, and successful. Guess disability doesn't necessarily stop you right?
If it wasn't for the young woman saying NO to the company in the US, half of my family could have been thalidomide victims. So MANY people in the US could have been victims of thalidomide.
She's a life saver
@@kyleyakich3800 we'll see that when the Covid vaccine comes out smh
@@kyleyakich3800 yea! No more pansies with missing limbs! We want polio like real men!
@@kyleyakich3800 wow you americans really LOVE danger.
@@kyleyakich3800 lmaooooo stfu. But I do agree that these companies can be really greedy
I had one of these children for a Teacher in high school and despite her arms she lived a very full life. If it were my child, I would have loved the baby even more.. I can't comprehend how these children were abandoned and so unwanted...
Notice how you keep referring to these babies as an it ??? Proof that ppl have been taught that ppl with disabilities are not even treated human... you used "it" as if they were a toy or something... I hope all the kids one day really 100% are fulfilled and feel like they are living their best life ...
@@cjon5456 damn, "child" is a neutral word and the fact that they're referring to a child with "it" isn't discrimination in any way. It's just a positive comment. Stop reading stuff into it that isn't written there
@@cjon5456 Don't overact and be overly dramatic. They used 'it' in reference to the baby/ies.
TH-cam recommendations strikes again with a 1 hour 18 minutes video
Did I watch it all? You bet.
Lool me too!
And l was already aware of this, but l watched anyways. Sucker for a documentary.
My current situation lol I can relate
I tried, I really tried, but ADS EVERY SIX MINUTES was just too much for something that should be important enough to show.
I was about 10 when all this happened and then I was working L&D when I had my second child. I was seeing spina bifidas, anencephalics, clubbed feet, hydrocephalics, and more every week in the hospital that I worked.
Sad that TH-cam feels underwear ads are more important than history!
amira Sharawy
Same XD I really need to stop being interested in phycological disorders and rare disease... considering I’m only 11...
I was the Aunt of a young nephew who was born with deformed legs, from . my sister taking Tholidomide. He had his legs amputated below the knees and was fitted with artificial legs at age 18 months. He just passed away on New year's day from a heart attach. He was 55years old. He was a brilliant artist and has written 3 children's books. We miss him greatly.
Valerie Hughes Whats his name, I have a child, I would like to buy his book and help your family with my purchase.
@@imhuemankeepURcolorsforcrayons Same, I would like to see them
What are the books he wrote? I’m interested too.
I would love to know his name, I want to find his books!
Sorry for your loss. May his soul rest peacefully. God bless.
“You don’t need arms to be a father.
You don’t need arms to love him.
You don’t need arms to be there.
You don’t need arms to listen.”
These words touched me the most. What a beautiful man and his children are so, SO lucky!
Beautiful
God bless.
They sell drug.....but then they should pay for the medical assistants who will care of disabled kids.
AMEN
Time stamp?
在貪婪、無知與懦弱所帶來鋪天的黑暗，有著正義、專業、勇敢與憐憫所帶來的光，祈願人們更多傳遞這樣的光，射破人間黑暗。
There was a man who came to my state who had no arms from thalidomide. He became a very skilled guitar player and came to my middle school when I was a kid. He talked to us about never giving up and finding our own gifts and doing our best. Then He played a concert for us-with his feet. And it was incredible to see. His stage name? “Toe Jam” 🤣 He also apparently had a great sense of humor. He made his living touring and giving inspirational talks to kids and adults alike. His real name was Tony Melendez. Think he still tours. Great guitar player, GREAT person 👍
Great story Rebecca ! ! Thanks for a positive out of all this.
That’s awesome
claire fischer cool!! What State? Wasn’t he great?
Yes ive seen him on TV. He is very catholic, has played for the pope and has lobbied for Pro Life. Tony Menendez is super talented.
He’s really popular woah
I have a lot of respect to the parents admitting that they were horrified
Agreed.
Ffrrwe z. Tfefhf.
Well...
Random rude replying commenters keep in mind. My brother and I were born 11 months apart. A vaccination that was "safe and encouraged" to take when he was born. was illegal and banned when I was born. Vaccines aren't always a end all safe thing. You gotta be cautious and do research too. Vaccinate appropriately.
@@rainbowjo00 source for this so called unsafe vaccination? Vaccinating appropriately is vaccinating with what’s recommended by the FDA on time, no ifs,ands, or buts.
Oh, and, btw, Facebook isn’t a reliable source and Wakefield was a con artist trying to sell his own vaccine and no longer has a medical license, so do not cite them as sources
I love the parents who don't make their children feel like they're handicapped.
❤
My mother has always been a stubborn gal, and steadfastly refused to take this drug for the severe morning sickness she was having while pregnant with me. She is 85 and takes NO meds. I went to school with a girl born with no arms...I had all my limbs. Thanks Mom❤️
I wish I knew your mother. Amazing woman!
@@phoenixrising441 thirty years ago the doctor wanted her on a cholesterol med because her level was too high and she would have a heart attack he said. Fast forward 30 years…she has never had a heart attack, and takes no meds. Mom knows best, lol.
Lucky she has no chemical imbalances of the brain where meds are necessary for a stable quality of life.
I have short arms. My Mother took the drug when she was five months pregnant with me. I was not able to have children of my own and have yet to be compensated. At least I still have a brain!
You got this! Hope you get the money soon!
Wjeres rebbeccars
BBHMM
I am sorry, I hope your life is still full and happy.
Thank you for sharing your story! The world needs to know! God bless you
You know, I love that they expose the name of these brands.
OBVIOUSLY they want people to avoid it hahaha
Poor child.. Called devil baby.. Shame on Adults.. So mean. Thank you kind parents take the baby in... Loved him
I live in Winnipeg.. Was born here. I am lucky
and why not
I am a 43 year old woman who has never heard of this ever. What the heck, this most definitely needs to be in textbooks this needs to be taught in school this is a history that I never even knew existed. And any parent that takes a life of an infant it's not a parent of any kind and does not deserve any children!
It is well documented. I'm shocked you never knew of this!
Its taught in Germany
How? I mean, I am just as old, and I remember hearing about it in high school, in college, on television..
Same age & I never heard of it
Ignorance is apparently bliss
My mom miscarried in 1953 and was given thalidomide and then she got pregnant with me. She told me when i was young that i would need to keep an eye on my thyroid because of it. One thing i do see is that the right side of my face is lower than the other...i see it could have been catastrophic! Bless you Dr. Frances❣️
I can't believe she was told that "she should just get another baby" by a doctor, that's just disgusting
The past is haunting for many, we need to move forward as a whole and enjoy each other’s lives.
He's lucky he wasn't killed in the delivery room.
@@ninaappelt9001 So true!
Rebecca Midson, yes it is terrible! It’s not altogether shocking, though, as Germany gathered up all their physically and mentally disabled children and the doctors and nurses gassed or murdered them by drug overdose at beginning of Holocaust. They wanted to kill off everyone they deemed “unworthy”of life. Look up “eugenics”. It is EXTREMELY important to learn from history in order to never allow these horrors to be repeated.
I think that there is a major issue that the doctor has a point on. Life back then was not as easy as it was now, and having to protect and provide for a child like that is beyond the financial and emotional capacity of many if not most young families, other than the fact that the child will be suffering the entire time. You can as just easily argue that both life and death were suggested because they cared about the welfare of both the family and newborn.
The war had just ended, and many were smitten in horrible ways by the likes of the communists and nazis etc., so they clearly knew there are many worse and more painful outcomes that may befall their family. Marriage, the emergence of drinking problems etc., and having a high tolerance to horrors makes it the least painful way to end it.
"You don't need arms to be a father at all.
Unfortunately, too many fathers that have arms don't realize that."
1:01:54
Woah..saw this comment just as he said this and thought similar.
Same with mothers.
Peace duh oooooooof
Well put
👏
When my Mum was pregnant with me she suffered from morning sickness, she was offered Distaval and was grateful that something could be done for the excessive vomiting which was exhausting her. She opened the packet and was reading the instructions when she heard her own mother talking (she wasn't long dead)) She distinctly heard her voice saying "Never take medicine when you're pregnant" She spun around expecting to see her Mum but of course, there was nobody there. Anyway, she was so disturbed by the message that she flushed the tablets down the loo, thinking she was hearing things. Suffice to say, the message from my dead grandmother gave me a very different life from how it could have been.
Very fortunate. One should always trust their gut
Wow, that amazing
Sweet should have thrown in trash tho
Cathy English good
Oh that wasn’t your grandmother 😲
During my first pregnancy I became obsessed with this. It was the horror I woke up to in the middle of the night. These people were meant to have arms and legs like the rest of us!
I was born in the late 50's and am a Thalidomide baby. My deformity is I have no frontal, sphenoid or ethmoid sinuses. My maxillary sinuses are ultra small. Of course this leads to all kinds of nasal infection issues in the nasal ducts, etc. I consider myself so very fortunate it didn't effect the development of my limbs more than my arms are a bit shorter than normal & my little toes are sideways.
💕
💖💖
My little toes are sideways. Totally normal
@@DerKaktusAvant don't be mean 😔
@@subgirl_999 how was I being mean? I'm saying that my little toes are the same as hers and its normal.
This was so well-filmed, timed, spaced, and filled with interest that it seemed like a 2 hour movie. I learned an incredible amount that didn't feel rushed in any way. Well done.
I totally agree
This ^
Renee S same here, I love documentaries like this, I’m a history fiend but I didn’t know that this excited until recently. Very sad but very interesting.
I bet they still giving you this frug but in different name
My mother and her doctor discussed my mother taking this drug when she was pregnant with me, but they decided against it because her symptoms weren't that bad. I was born in 1960. I've always felt I dodged a bullet.
Same thing with my grandmother, although she did take it for a little while before stopping. My mom turned out completely fine, she was definitely a lucky one.
Amelie Doucet whats the drug called
What’s the drug called
Yep my mom too born in 61
Me too, Jan. We were so lucky.........
I love the man who became a director and bought a castle!! He’s so real about the feelings and wanting revenge for the horrid deaths and disabilities they caused all those babies
Every baby is worthy of being loved
I agree
JESUS IS FREEDOM oh yeaaaah
JESUS IS FREEDOM tell that to pro choice people who think abortion is ok
Emma Wiley so why haven’t you adopted disabled babies?
@@ThunderStruck15 they require a lot of care but i would if i was old enough
My brother was a survivor of this and passed away last year RIP John hardwick 02,09,1962
So sorry for your loss.. May he rest in peace...
He survived birth you mean? He survived the merciful murders?
May he rest in peace.
I'm so sorry for your loss, may he rest in peace :(
RIP 😢 my condolences
What’s even worse is that this company stilllllll exists....shows how corrupt society is
Car makers have products that are the instruments of death for some people. Should they close too?
TheKnitch your comment is so dumb it hurts
@@TheKnitch Yes
@@AutumnWind92 only if you're an ignorant idiot like yourself, without the ability to think critically.
TheKnitch Car makers don’t advertise their cars as “100% safe, even during pregnancy”.
We need more Dr. Kelsey's in our world right now!!!!
Dad, you gotta bring that baby home...and seeing his happy little dance, brought tears in my eyes.
I was crying.
I know.. omg 🥺💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
I know 😭😭😭❤❤❤
So that one British women’s dad locked her away in a boarding school where she was only allowed to visit her family 3 weeks a year but was used as the “poster child” for her fathers campaign against the drug that caused this disability to her so that the parents could receive compensation for the burden this drug caused while they shut her away for her entire childhood. That’s absolutely disgusting. Please correct me if I misunderstood what happened.
Sounds about right to me, but we don't know how much of that $ she got.
No you understood it correctly. I thought it was a crying shame that she had to be away from her family like that. To be honest I think that her parents were ashamed of her. The poor dear must have been so very lonely.
Also that is how rich British dealt with all children...after early years off to school, home for summer hols and see u when u are all done.
Exactly what they did. So sickening.
@@inanimateuser9828 it's what the British royals do. Also many British MDS I worked with here in Canada, also spent their years in boarding school. Only the poor went to the local public school.
My Mum moved out to Canada from Scotland and was offered thalidomide during her pregnancy. Because Scotland had been questioning it's use, she refused. Thank goodness
Smart lady.
starting at 14:00 , the happy baby montage :D
with love and care, everyone can thrive, i wish more people understood that the disabled and ill are people too and deserve the same liberties as the average person without a handicap!!!
I agree. I think they’re the advanced souls to incarnate actually
@ 13:57 " dad you gotta bring that baby home!" The following home cine footage made me smile and laugh but with tears in my eyes. Such a happy baby and what a wonderful family
Me too! 😃 He looked like a very loved and happy baby. I don’t think I remember my own son being so happy. But then again he was born in 1996. I was probably working and the day care got to enjoy those moments. 😔
Me too! Such a beautiful selfless family! If every parent loved their child for who they are and not what they look like or makes them different there would be so many more success stories like these. Love & acceptance makes all the difference in the world. God sent these children into the world for a reason. To love & be loved. And we all have something to teach & give...
Such a terrible mistake that you can’t take back and you can’t apologize enough for. 😥
Most definitely not a mistake when a company knowingly falsified experiments to make the drug appear safe.
If it was tested on slaves, I wonder how much they knew from the beginning, and why it was this particular drug that they pushed to the market. Did it work on morning sickness? Did they explain the deformed babies with something else like lack of nutrition? Was it a plot or a revenge?
Yes for the people who didn’t know
Apologize? They didn’t hit a car on traffic they ruined these poor people’s lives. Killed babies, caused unneeded problems in families and trauma. They deserve no forgiveness.
Yeah... like slavery...
I was a teenager when the problem blew up here in 1961. I also remember when President Kennedy presented The Medal of Freedom to Dr. Frances Kelsey. Without this very tenacious woman, the United States would have had the same population of thalidomide babies. Everyone should remember the name of this great woman.🌹👍
God bless her😇❤️✌️
I'm so greatful she left Canada for the USA.
Thank God for her!!!
Especially when you figure in that when a woman showed strength back then they were disrespected and ignored. I'm grateful that she stood up for what was right. I was a 1964 baby.
I have never forgotten my little best friend called Emma when we were about 5 yrs old and my mother told me later I was extremely protective of her..
She was a thalodomide baby in 1965 when I knew her.
Ive often wondered where she is and what became of her.
When you are pregnant, do not take chemicals..
For generations our grandmothers n great grandmother's had natural foods, did their house work and rested and delivered at home.
Todays world is just about money and deadly chemicals prescribed by the docs with no mention of the side effects.
Carry your baby eating healthy, walk and do light work and rest when your body tells you to.
Think positive...
Stay off chemicals, cigarettes, drinks and drugs.🙏🙏
I'm 57 years old, and had never heard of this tragedy... THIS MUST BE TALKED ABOUT IN SCHOOLS!!
#UnitedStatesDeptOfEducation
It's mentioned in the song "We didn't start the fire."
I remember my mom mentioning it when I was small.
I'm 31 and i've never heard of the name Belen before. Cool name dude
I learned about this in chemistry but it is worth noting that the FDA never approved it so the US had very few babies born with thalidomide defects.
@hello there exactly. They are the ones who "mandate" all of these vaccines.
My mother was offered Thalidomide for morning sickness when pregnant with me, she refused, she took no medication throughout each of her three pregnancies...Her doctor who was a lovely gentle man (and for UK readers my mother told us he was the double of Noel Edmunds)...he never got over the fact he offered woman this drug and later committed suicide...at the time in the area I was born (west of scotland) quite a number of Thalidomide babies were born..although my mother's doctor obviously wasn't to blame for all thalidomide children born n the west of Scotland he lived with a terrible guilt.
How sad. So sorry for this Dr taking his life from guilt😭
0
Hi, Maggie. I'm in Glasgow. I'm glad your Mum didn't take it. How awful for her doctor. He really was a good soul. What a tragic story for him and all those folk who grew up with the thalidomide legacy.
@@mmer7061 yep the worst is that the people who decided to be corrupt and lie about the safety for money, intentionally, don't feel a thing.
Tuff OleBird eh? He didn’t know what he was doing nor that the drug was bad...
Those foster parents not giving up on that young man, then baby, without arms, that‘s just made my eyes water. That‘s what love is about
That spoon wheel contraption was GENIUS
No-one knows how many miscarriages the drug caused, but it's estimated that, in Germany alone, 10,000 babies were born affected by Thalidomide. Many were too damaged to survive for long. Today, fewer than 3,000 are still alive.
Nick& Misa oof
plus apparently a lot of them were murdered at birth
I always wondered what happened, because when I was a child it was not unusual to see grwon up Thalidomide childern ("Contergan-Kinder" in Germany) every once in a while, but it's been quite a while since I last saw one... Guess they died...
This shows that disability activism has come a long, long way.
How so?
Yanasoo Sibarah one example is doctors today won’t see it the best thing to do to end babies lives because they are born disabled
@@ShamelessBarbz we regard disability as a culture differently...i am just wondering how this relates to disability activism specifically - like what activists? What protests?
Yanasoo Sibarah I imagine there has been a lot of activism since that year to change the predominant mindset of people. Social change doesn’t just happen out of no where.
@@ShamelessBarbz I just find it an odd thing to say if the documentary doesn't mention activism...perhaps it depends how literal the original comment is read.
At 22 years old why did i never hear about this in high school or college. This was a global problem. That drug damaged generations and more than likely because of the companies wealth, they were able to get a ridiculous deal.
not sure which country you are from, I am from england/uk and this is one thing I learnt from one my teachers in high school, one of my history teachers once said that there is so much history that in the few years you might get taught history it is not enough time to be able to teach every bit of history as far as I remember even with me taking history as a GCSE, end of english high school exams, I was taught history for maybe 8 years some of my friends got taught history for about 6 years roughly depending on the school you go to, here in England, they teach you the bigger things, like the 2 world wars, some of the kings and queen's, battle of hastings, and a handful of other things, so unfortunately we never get the full picture and since most people don't like learning about history will not go out of their way to go to their local library for history books and learn things that don't get taught in school, in my last 2 years of high school I got taught more about usa history than I did uk history so you also not only have history from your own country, in my case England/UK, you also have history from all the other countries so a huge load of history can't realistically be taught in such a short time as 6 years in my friends cases or 8 years in my case, so as a result I only learnt about this within the last 3-4 years when I learnt about it on here.
Say no to big pharma and vaccines.
Learntherisk.org
Every time I hear the phrase ‘trust the science’ this is what comes to mind for me. If we all ‘trusted the science’ and didn’t question anything, this would be the future of over half the world right now.
So sad that this happened to these people 😞
This story is so tragic, but seeing that baby dancing a long with his siblings nearly brought me to tears. So much love.
Love the Palestinian flag❤️
@@Shugabugababe same 💕
Agreed so beautiful 😍
i know my heart just melt. most of them have a loving family. tho some are not that fortunate
That was the best!!!
Omg the baby with his dancing and he was so proud of himself,
Soooo cute! I can imagine how much joy he brought to the family
Omg I was smiling with joy just watching him dance it was adorable
Precious, happy baby! You can tell was loved unconditionally!
So cute and happy. Good quality of life sad that some were killing these poor innocent babies.
every baby was beautiful and most of them looked happy when they were babies. I can't imagine killing babies that beautiful or any baby at all. What a heartless and sick thing to do to try to cover their actions like that.
I am a doctor and I was educated on this issue. They fail to explain that the issue with thalidomide is that there are always 2 types of a molecule in any chemical process (left and right), and they assumed that both versions of thalidomide were equally safe and effective. This wasn't the case. Since then, testing and chemical separation of the two types of molecules has become standard in farmaceutics. I know this doesn't provide any solace to the victims, no apology is enough. I am saddened about this story, in my country it was a very severe issue as well. I am grateful that the medical sciences learned from it at least.
Farmaceutic? Or pharmaceutic?
@@mollyshaw1441 clearly you know what they meant and perhaps that is how it is spelled where they are from
@@mollyshaw1441
Ja? Or yeah, uh-huh?
you can’t be a doctor if you don’t even know how to spell pharmaceutics
@@sophiazeigler5875 And Trump can't say Yosemite, so there you go then.
These people are absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing all of their stories. Alvin is an absolute gem, and I had actually heard of Louise's father- I had heard that his activism was responsible for getting the UK's thalidomide children compensation, but I did not know that he had put his child in such an awful, traumatizing situation. I am so sorry for what she went through, and she was an amazingly strong woman.
here's a fun fact. Thalidomide is still used in Medicine to treat the hematological disorder, Multiple Myeloma. It works but any woman taking the drug must get pregnancy tests to ensure that this doesnt happen again
That is discussed in the documentary. It’s also fda approved to treat leprosy.
Yeah it literally says that in the video 😂
Accutane is the same way. Luckily we have much better skincare like proactive and murad now and if I would have had murad and known about the way zinc helps slow excess oil production both when taken orally and applied topically..I would likely not have had to go on accutane twice. You have to stick with it, but murad has pretty much cured my acne. I dont know if taking zinc supplements daily for extended periods is bad for you. It seems like it could be, and dont take too much because t will give you the runs. But if I just take a zinc capsule apart and mix a tiny bit into my murad moisturizer (and using the whole kit) twice a day, I'm not greasy and my skin clears up
@@missanna208802 Thanks for the tip. What dosage of zinc do you use?
I highly doubt this drug works for anything.
That home video with the little boy dancing and having the time of his life melted my heart!! What a totally wonderful family he had!!! 😍
yes that was amazing to see ❤❤ I feel sad for Louise whose parents put her in an institution 😢😢 but she is truly a beautiful woman ❤️ well let me say they are all beautiful people ❤
My wife was born and raised in a small town in southern Germany, Neckartenzlingen, and her next door neighbor was offered this horrible drug during her pregnancy and was close to taking it. She refused when one of the doctors in the hospital told her that it was fairly new at the time and that he simply didn't feel comfortable yet offering it to pregnant patients since it was so new. That doctor saved my wife's neighbor/friend from a lifetime of pain and suffering without even knowing it at the time.
I was conceived in 1962, my mum was offered this drug, she refused it. I am so happy she did. Bless her.
I was a Thalidomide baby. I was born without my lower left leg, my big toe on my right foot and without my ring finger and pinky on my left hand. I was lucky. My mom was apparently further along in her pregnancy when she took it. I too went to a school that had half disabled, half "normal" (as we called it) kids. I was on the disabled side of the school. Except I never saw myself as handicapped. I done everything anyone else did except riding a bicycle. This was the only thing I didn't learn to do. It would be cool to talk to others who were affected by this drug.
Karen Sawyer
Thx for sharing
I wonder there’s not any support groups? Your story is amazing!
@@scrambledmegdresqlol569 There is. If you go to Facebook and search for "Thalidomide survivors" there are a few groups.
I hope your parents sought compensation.
¹
I can’t imagine a life without my arms.
All of these people are so strong, and deserve to be recognized by modern education. Sadly, I’ve never heard of this before in my life.
As someone who's disabled, let me tell you it sucks and it's scary when you first become disabled (assuming you weren't born with your disability), but then you move on and get on with your life with some workarounds. You, I assume, were born without the ability to run 60mph, so you bought a car (assuming you have a car). It's no different for disabled people getting their needs met. The only difference is able-bodied people 1) see the disability like it's a massive issue and must be terrible and 2) have built the world to their needs and not been inclusive.
Me either- I’m a professional pet portrait artist... I can’t imagine not having that talent 😕
@@hamsterpouches I've been disabled for about 5 years and yes it sucks but life goes on and you , I, and everyone just gets on with life , not a lot of options otherwise is there . It is what it is .🌷✌
"It was a baby and nobody wanted it . So what are you going to do ?" Spoken like a true hero , and his wife too !! God Bless you folks .
Heartbreaking, but man, i cried with joy when i saw that legless baby dancing around. :D Life is an awesome force. Legs or no legs.