Paxil Caused PPHN, Grief and Guilt

Watertown, SD"Several months after my son Nathan passed away, I started to do a lot of research on PPHN and discovered there was a link between Paxil and the birth defects he had," says Jennifer Berg. "I felt sick, I felt it was my fault."

"I know it wasn't my fault but it's still so hard to swallow.," she says. Berg took Paxil for about five years, including during her pregnancy - her doctor said it was safe. How wrong doctors can be sometimes.

"My son Nathan was born with PPHN, in the small town of Watertown, and we had no idea anything was wrong - until the moment he was born. Nathan couldn't breathe, he was blue. Right away he was flown to Sioux Falls, the biggest city in South Dakota. My husband and I followed in the car - I had given birth and one hour later we were driving to another hospital. That was the worst ride of my life.

"We were there less than 24 hours when the doctors decided that they couldn't help him; Nathan was then flown to Children's Hospital in Minneapolis - and we drove another five hours.

"For two months, I lived at that hospital with the clothes on my back. I never got the chance to go back home. Our other son, Alec, was four-years-old so my husband came home to work and stayed there with Alec during the week. On weekends he would drive to Minneapolis with Alec. (We only have one vehicle but someone was kind enough to let my husband use their car. I had the family car because I had to stay at the Ronald McDonald house, about 10 miles from the hospital.)

"For Nathan's whole life, I stayed with him except when I slept. I never had the chance to hold him until the doctors decided there was nothing else they could do. When he was disconnected from the machine, I was able to hold him.

"Within the last year we have adopted a baby and I gave birth to a healthy baby - I was not on Paxil during that pregnancy, nor was I on Paxil when I was pregnant with Alec.

"We decided to take legal action, because we don't want this to happen to anyone else. The drug makers shouldn't get away with this. Nobody should have to tell a four-year-old that his baby brother died."