{"id":69283,"date":"2023-11-28T17:56:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T17:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotcelebon.com\/?p=69283"},"modified":"2023-11-28T17:56:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T17:56:00","slug":"this-wonder-drug-caused-many-australians-a-life-of-pain-now-theyre-getting-an-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotcelebon.com\/lifestyle\/this-wonder-drug-caused-many-australians-a-life-of-pain-now-theyre-getting-an-apology\/","title":{"rendered":"This wonder drug caused many Australians a life of pain. Now they\u2019re getting an apology"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It was the pregnancy wonder drug that promised Australian women in the early 1960s a quick fix for their side effects \u2013 an over-the-counter cure-all for everything from morning sickness to insomnia.<\/p>\n

But soon after, babies across Australia were born with shortened or absent limbs, blindness, deafness or malformed internal organs. That wonder drug, thalidomide, became known as one of the world\u2019s worst pharmaceutical disasters.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Thalidomide survivor and activist Lisa McManus says the federal government\u2019s apology has come too late for many families.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Alex Ellinghausen<\/cite><\/p>\n

The tragedy changed everything about the way medicines were tested and approved in Australia, where there had been no system for evaluating drugs before they hit the market. It eventually spawned the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the well-known agency now charged with ensuring medicines in Australia are of the highest standards.<\/p>\n

But it has also caused survivors a lifetime of pain, and the federal government has never said sorry for its role in the disaster. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will change that, with a long-awaited apology to thalidomide survivors and their families.<\/p>\n

Lisa McManus, 60, was one of those thalidomide babies. She\u2019s spent years leading the fight for compensation for Australia\u2019s community of survivors. There are 146 registered with the government, but the true number is unknown.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a long, arduous, relentless battle that should never have needed to happen, and it\u2019s certainly a battle that shouldn\u2019t have been left to someone like me,\u201d McManus says.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 60 plus years, the government haven\u2019t looked at us, and I honestly believe that they still wouldn\u2019t be looking at us today had I not grabbed them by the ears and dragged them, kicking and screaming, to get them to this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

McManus says some known survivors will attend the national apology \u2013 the first since the apology to victims of child sex abuse in 2018 \u2013 while some have boycotted and others will watch with mixed emotions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s too little, too late,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Thalidomide products arrived in Australia in 1960 and were promoted to hospitals and chemists, especially around Sydney. While the mothers who took it felt better, the drug crossed the placenta and affected the blood supply that fed the rapidly multiplying cells of their unborn children.<\/p>\n

More than 10,000 children worldwide were born with deformities, and about four in 10 of them died within a year.<\/p>\n

In 1961, the Australian obstetrician Dr William McBride was one of the first doctors to start making links between thalidomide use in pregnancy and birth defects. While distributors gradually withdrew drugs from sale, the public was not alerted and thalidomide stock remained in Australia.<\/p>\n

It was not until August 1962 that the Australian government formally banned the import of thalidomide.<\/p>\n

At that point, Mark Chorlton, 62, was already one year old. The first year of his life had been touch and go; he weighed less at six months than he did at birth.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mark Chorlton at age four, in 1965.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Fairfax Media<\/cite><\/p>\n

The experience was shocking for his then-26-year-old mother, who was feeding him when he started spurting blood at three-days-old. It had an enduring impact on his family.<\/p>\n

Chorlton\u2019s sister, who was three years older than him, became isolated as his mother\u2019s focus gravitated around his illnesses. His father \u2013 \u201cwho never really got over the fact that I was disabled\u201d \u2013 divorced from his mother 10 years later.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t unusual. I know a large number of family breakdowns occurred because of thalidomide,\u201d Chorlton says.<\/p>\n

There were other issues he didn\u2019t become aware of until later on \u2013 such as his mother\u2019s fight to enrol him in a mainstream school.<\/p>\n

Chorlton went on to work as a metallurgist at BHP, then studied psychology and became a lecturer. But his chronic pain from spinal issues \u2013 which is less visible than his shortened arms and fewer fingers, but more debilitating \u2013 disrupted his working life and led him to retire for medical reasons at 48.<\/p>\n

So many of those that are deserving to have heard these words have died \u2026 the apology, I think, will only be as genuine as the actions that follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Years of advocacy were also taxing: descending on Canberra, meeting government representatives, urging the importance of their plight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the difficulties got to some of us. It certainly was getting [to] myself, this level of anxiety and stress. It\u2019s felt very much like putting one\u2019s head up against a wall at times,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the bits in our mind is that we\u2019re all ageing faster than our chronological age; our physical capabilities were deteriorating. There were certainly a number of thalidomiders [a term used by many survivors to describe themselves] who\u2019ve never really been able to work. So financially, there were difficulties for people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthony Albanese said the thalidomide tragedy was \u201ca dark chapter in the history of our nation and the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn giving this apology, we will acknowledge all those babies who died and the families who mourn them, as well as those who survived but whose lives were made so much harder by the effects of this terrible drug,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis moment is a long overdue national acknowledgement of all they have endured and all they have fought for.\u201d<\/p>\n

But McManus says she and many other survivors will be waiting to see what happens afterwards. While some compensation has been secured, she wants survivors\u2019 pensions tied to inflation and the registration process reopened, so others can join.<\/p>\n

\u201cUp until 2014, we thought that there was only 40 of us … To think that there aren\u2019t more out there in the community is just arrogant and ignorant,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many of those that are deserving to have heard these words [in the apology] have died. Most of our parents, even [some of] our survivors, have died waiting for this day to happen. So the apology I think will only be as genuine as the actions that follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

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