Drug Company Faces Birth Injury Lawsuits Over Zofran Use During Pregnancy

There will always be a need for birth injury lawyers. On average, about 28,000 babies are born with an injury every year. Cerebral palsy is the most prevalent motor disability in children and one of the most common birth injuries as seven out of every 1,000 babies will suffer from cerebral or Erbs palsy. However, one of the most recent reasons for potential birth injury lawsuits involves new research studies that have linked the anti-nausea drug, Zofran, to congenital heart defects. Almost two million birth records from Denmark and Sweden were reviewed by researchers who found babies exposed to the drug during their first trimester more than doubled their risk of “cardiac septal defects,” according to the global news site Digitaljournal.com.

Today many of the mothers affected, who were prescribed Zofran as an “off-label” treatment to their morning sickness, are seeking medical malpractice lawyers to file birth injury lawsuits against the drug’s pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline. Reports indicate there are currently 34 individual motions filed in federal courts.

One Ohio law firm, Monheit Law, has started the website Zofranlegal.com where this particular case, among others, is made public. Potentially, it could lead to an alliance of sorts with similar birth injury lawsuits and even the filing of a class-action lawsuit.

One of the claims filed in late July represented by Monheit is from a Cleveland-area mother who says using the drug during her pregnancy about 10 years ago caused her unborn child to develop a “large atrial septal defect.” She was prescribed the drug after seeing her OB/GYN for the nausea and vomiting caused by morning sickness.

When she gave birth to her daughter in January of 1995 the baby immediately faced a variety of lung-related issues, including pneumonia, that forced her to spend the first nine days of her life in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The respiratory issues persisted for the next few years and by two she was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect identified as a large atrial septal defect (ASD). Doctors also determined that her daughter’s lungs had been damaged by the condition’s effect on her blood flow.

After open-heart surgery at the age of three, continual treatment, and regular monitoring, her daughter’s condition has improved greatly to the point that doctors determined her atrial defect had “completely mended.” Unfortunately, as the claim points out she still suffers from allergies, asthma, and related breathing problems her mother believes to be associated with her original ailment.

Any women who were irresponsibly prescribed Zofran during pregnancy for their morning sickness are encouraged to seek a free consultation from a birth injury law firm and decide if their situation demands legal action.