the worst drug disaster in history would spread through more than forty six countries and produce up to twenty thousand badly deformed babies worldwide. but historians today single out one birth in one nine hundred sixty one that changed the course of history in hamburg germany linda shoulder fillin age twenty three gave birth to her first child her husband wasn't with her at the time and it was quiet day out. and then i lay back and was relaxed and some i mean somebody whispered into my ear is she husband not all right and i was here white awake and i said. what's got what has happened to my

baby is anything wrong you know she said just. let's say. without any emotion oh yeah he's just got short arms and i like a child would have asked possibly i said and aren't a calling anymore and shit this card this would be like it is now. and then i felt like i was beaten to death. a doctor gave the first time mother some friendly advice just get another child. like forget about him you know. i'm a way to get out shortly afterwards linda's husband arrived and gave her some bad news he'd been keeping from her six weeks earlier his sister had given birth to a baby with similar deformities it looks alike like our child there must be something that is. the same all region the same difficulty the same problem in the

background and we'll find it and we'll search and we won't stop until we fall out. of the land. the epidemic of deformed babies began five and a half years earlier on christmas day nine hundred fifty six with the birth of the first victim. in a small town of germany a mother had taken a new drug called for little mite being developed by a local drug company can be grown into her husband like other grown in tallinn ploys had taken home a sample which he gave to his pregnant wife the baby would be the first of six other than my babies possibly more born chagrin in thousand workers in the years ahead but the company ignored the early warning signals in their midst know that

spirit really tells women action didn't investigate didn't talk to the mom didn't go to the hospital didn't look the medical records didn't contact experts there were multiple opportunities for grew up holds us to short tech and. nine months after the first deformed baby was born grown and are launched the little abide under the german market under the brand name country gun going in thousand aggressive sales force whose motto was succeed at any cost continue to promote the drug cardigan they claimed was a safe sedative especially for pregnant women suffering from morning sickness sales zoomed into little my became the second best selling drug next to aspirin. but linda's shoulder helen and her husband carl hammond were determined to find out what caused their son's short arms months later they were no closer to finding an answer i know my husband had times when he said we don't make it i think we have to

get up and i said i'm not giving up. her husband soon contacted a professor of obstetrics dr viduka nd lenz who had received a few reports of deformed babies my father and professor lance they travel to germany and their road folks wagon and they went from one small village to another and asked are there any children with short legs or shot. and those kids were hidden away at the time in the small villages and he asked and restaurants and bars and the local police office and everybody said no not in our town and then he showed a picture of me and said this is my bari and can i please repeat my question and then they said well at the end of the road there has been a very sad incident and then he went there and drink the darn shot first thing he did was showing the picture of means that this is my son do yours have a kid like this and the people burst into tears and and children through my children's were. called to the day our flight literally.

in england was being sold under the brand name distal by the country's largest look i'm a. new factory the distillers company as in germany distillers had received reports of deformed babies but had been assured by green and the drug was completely safe. louise mason was one of five hundred thirty three little my babies born in england over a six and a half year period the weser only learned about the circumstances of her birth by reading her father's bestselling autobiography i haven't got any arms and i hadn't got any legs and my dad said it was like a little flower buds. in know from my arms and from my lips my dad had a look at me. and. he said my god you're not going to let this

baby live. and they say yes my mum was only twenty one and she was advised by doctors to. put me away and concentrate on having another family. after eleven days in hospital her parents took louise to an institution for handicapped children where she would spend the next eighteen years of her life but louise was fortunate her father had not asked another doctor to end her life because i'm question of all. midwives and doctors were killing disabled children. in the hospitals and the delivery rooms on a large scale in britain. and germany. and if they're probably everywhere else. in canada another armless baby was spared by a poor ukrainian family in rural cisco. years later alvin law learned how

horrified his natural parents were when he was born ultimately it was the perturb grand mother who didn't want to have anything to do with us she said you're not going to bring that devil baby home with you ease he's deformed because of a curse. the armas baby wasn't taken home after doctors warned he would never lead a normal life but after six weeks an elderly couple jack and hilda law who had already raised their own children volunteered as foster parents and got their first look at alan and i took one look and i thought no wonder nobody wants. and the next i went to see him personally had a bath interest and hid and looked further to. follow of the favor of taking him oh boy. but. it

was a baby with nobody wanted i'm sure we're going to. turn out ok. my life story shifted the moment that sophie and peter my first father gave me up. that that that is a profound chapter shift in my life because i went to live with the laws my life became this life. back. in cincinnati ohio and deeply religious roman catholic couple with six children were expecting another normal birth my mother's story is that when i was born they were not at all prepared and the doctor said joy your baby doesn't have any legs. so she says that she took the baby me and she

said well eileen is my four leaf clover. i have a sibling who told me that my father cried and that when he came home he handed me to my siblings and everyone got very upset. and they said take it away. someone ripped off the blankets instead acts not a baby or something to that effect that's not our sister. that was what i was taught. as a young child. people. eileen cronan was one of several follow the my babies born in cincinnati where an american drug company richardson merrill had their headquarters like the german drug company merrill promoted the drug as completely safe even during pregnancy

like green and merrill had no evidence to back this up. merrill applied to the federal drug administration in one nine hundred sixty for approval to bring so little mite onto the american market and was allowed to conduct clinical trials on patients across the country now it wasn't a clue clinical trial at all what it was was a marketing campaign trumped up to look like a clinical trial michael mann isn't it is an australian lawyer and former investigative reporter who spent years researching this a lot of my disaster what merrill wanted to do was to familiarize doctors with the drug so that once they got approval they would have doctors all ready to go through with a drug raid to prescribe it like crazy. during this time richardson merrill handed out two and a half million dollars to my pills to thousands of doctors in the united states in canada. in germany grown in thousand advertising campaign was paying huge dividends

the company's owner and executives were making fortunes overnight especially heinrich mokhtar going in thousand research director. during the war mokhtar served as a natty doctor developing vaccines which were tested on jewish prisoners in the book and vowed concentration camps many of whom died. after the war mokhtar joined grin and nine years later he invented to live in mine and received a bonus for everything i learned in my pills sold worldwide the drug was such a success for growing and. that i started making money hand over fist. it was on a percentage of profit moved from modestly are flowing to having so much money pouring in he could've bought himself a new messiah does every month but only sixty one really he's making twenty times his salary in terms of a percentage so he's getting this massive massive bonus he's become a ludicrously rich man on the back of the mod. what would a man want that with

a history of wartime experimentation strong personality a massive income running on the selves of them on what would one expect that he would do when confronted with reports of nerve damage and other side effects but it is not surprising to me that there was not a rush of gruntal to investigate to get to the bottom of it to put warnings on the drug to withdraw to take all sorts of course and so did not it just focused on selling more the drug and it really was some time till the press got hold of it. and they knew it was going to go public but they finally backed off and agreed. forman are sitting in a car when the feds get shot in the head. possible way because dollars do not share around a corner. when lawmakers manufacture consent to public wealth. when the ruling

classes protect themselves. in the final larry go round the one percent. we can all middle of the room. doing room. on nov twenty eighth one thousand nine hundred sixty one a day after the thalidomide scandal me headlines in west germany. it was withdrawing the drug from the market even if first latest the spring of nineteen sixty one. had taken the drug off the market then they would have spared. after the

break. nico vonn glazzard was disabilities weren't so severe but as a young child nico had trouble adjusting to his short arms. and his findings angsty his continued future violent aunt is competent also if you notice he's feeling or found in venice from purely somebody at some point a man cop saw him fall off the conneaut. and strive for a fearless eyes to underpin dolphin bomb took it on and off our farm. on. down from our hunts to our boys far you know least globish i only furthers. the one. who are. all.

in england louise mason and didn't see her parents and three siblings for months at a time. i was that alone most of the time my parents had other children there's no way that they could even move my nan it was my crime i was old so they just stopped coming. i went home three weeks. for week week in the summer making a christmas easter. every quality was like getting to know your sisters again. in new york chances catch you and alvin law's parents decided the best way to get their arm a son to cope with life was to turn his tones into fingers for hours album was given manual task to perform at his feet. now granted having no arms it is a rather simple disability it's

a very complicated disability and i'd be lying if i didn't say it was a lot of work a lot of work a lot of time spent by myself very long very. very frustrated but i think it was the character that was built by my parents especially by my parents. that allowed me to not really think that i was all that different. it's not an easy thing to get dressed but. again it goes back to the basic theory of my life and that is to i have someone look after me or do i look after myself. but more than anything i think it's a mindset you know that ok there's a lot of people in our world that have weighed bigger problems than i have so that i have to spend a little extra effort putting my clothes on so what. the moment i started using my toast and my feet and my legs was the same moment i

ceased to have a disability. in the united states there would have been found the little my babies like ellen law except for the actions of one woman dr francis kelsey a canadian born doctor and pharmacologist had just joined the federal drug administration when she received an application to bring thalidomide onto the american market here was a drug that looked like it should be no problem but at the same time there was just a feeling that to do something in the leader of the absence of the movement. was a cause of concern the application came from richardson merrill one of america's oldest drug companies known years ago for its best selling product vix cough drops merrill poured on the pressure they contacted the f.d.a. fifty times they went behind a back to those periods they complained

a better in writing that threatens libel proceedings i pushed and pushed and pushed and she was resolute she was unbelievably tough. but i know that we're all at most indebted to dr kelsey the relationship to the hope that all of us have for our children in august one thousand nine hundred two. john f. kennedy awarded the highest civilian honor an american can receive to dr francis kelsey so kill c. really. for the mother because. i come home from the playground one day my mom says honey good news you're going to get arms dear i mean you just remember a day like that right i thought we were going shopping you know arms or us i don't know. i was very confused they had hooks and they were made of metal and plastic and wood i mean i couldn't take off my shoes i wasn't allowed to use my feet can imagine how weird that was. so this became an interesting life half of my life was

being elven law the kid with no arms the other half of my life was this terrible victim of the little guy. i lost my sense of what was right stick these arms around me on my own body more all the more doesn't have any arms are special or not. and why why why would i leave them when there was no good reason not one good reason. to use them for years i tol away you are doing me any good. and i was like shut up . i was our brother what. we know what we're doing you don't. most the other miners don't use artificial limbs today but eileen cronan is an exception she wears artificial legs every day to get around. i was born with both legs from the knees down according to my mother i did it back to the

legs pretty quickly. and if you have. you know martial legs a lot of things go wrong you've got to go around conducting life and yet you know you've got a skin infection and you've got to put their leg on when you get it to me i put the leg on i guess that's not always the best thing to do but. that's what i do. in margin nine hundred sixty seven the owner and eight executives of growth all the german drug company were charged with criminal negligence premeditated bodily harm and manslaughter. among the defendants was heinrich mokhtar the natty doctor who made a fortune inventing fellow to mind. another charge grin and it was all amorous and natty war criminal known as the devil's. chemist ambrose was convicted of war

crimes he committed at auschwitz for which he served four years in prison but after the war the chemist found no shortage of employers including dow chemical j. peter grace and the u.s. army's chemical corps before he became chairman of grain and sells board of directors in one nine hundred seventy one so in the not in seventies quinto had as the chair of a man convicted of mesmo slavery. in a man who hired nancy war criminals like ambrose and was owner. verts was a member of the local nattie party in his hometown before the second world war a service for which he was handsomely rewarded by an off at their use of it was the personal lawyer for a good one thousand or herrmann verts but in december nine hundred sixty six noir burger resigned suddenly became justice minister in the province where the trial was being held. defense lawyer. ended up with

a government responsibility overseeing the conduct of the trial. away from the trial a secret deal was worked out between granting thousand herrmann verts and the provincial government the secret deal was only revealed when the trial was dramatically stopped after two and a half years. in return for having all the serious criminal charges against its owner and executives dropped the company agreed to pay the victims lifetime pensions ranging from thirty to one hundred forty dollars a month as well as a small one time payment but in order to collect the money the little mite has had to agree not to launch any further suits against her and so taken as a whole the trial was a glorious look the trial of her until. well canada loudly celebrated its one. birthday and nine hundred sixty seven b.c.

maybe my family's suffered in silence a few parents had committed suicide others became alcoholics and some were having severe psychiatric. that's a little my children were now school age but the question that plagued medical and educational authorities was what type of school should they enter some experts recommended schools for the handicapped while others advise the regular education system in new york since a scattergun alvan law as parents had run into opposition from the local grade school when they tried to enroll him school says wait he's got no arms he can't go to school they don't have such a thing as an operation on and out again what's integration is a kid in needs to brought to go to school he needs to learn and it's to be educated he can write he can read what else do you need the school finally agreed to take alvan but soon afterwards he ran into a reaction his teachers expected and feared i came home and i was very upset because somebody had called me. i've never heard that word before it was never used

in this house. it was never used in this neighborhood but i go to school there was no kids called me so i had to run home and i was a little freaked out mom called me down and that's when i first remember hearing those words that some people are born with black hair and some people are born with blond hair and you we're born. in england one hundred ninety seven families of the little my children were suing distillers the british company which had distributed the drug distillers made a ridiculously low offer of compensation and warned that the money would be paid out only if all parents agreed to the lifetime the five families refused the offer they were led by david mason and wealthy london art dealer and father of luis now i came under tremendous pressure i received threats on my life i had a police guard for a period of time i had anonymous phone calls i had an anonymous letter. you know threats from parents her father as well publicised opposition to the compensation

created problems for louise and her care institution up until then i was told not one of the crowd but often. i was picked on. louise escape the hostility of our classmates when her father took her out to participate in publicized events for his campaign i was used as i as opposed to go. david mason's campaign succeeded in increasing by six times the drug company's original offer to the parents i did pay a heavy pot. shots. if i hadn't paid that price facility my daughter's wouldn't have got the compensation when they got the compensation so i think it was well. unlike louise mason who rarely saw her mother during childhood young children hill and formed a close bond with his mother from birth and her unwavering support and encouragement were critical in his career decision she never lost hope she'll she

said cure everything you want to achieve in your life you're going to achieve it i have absolutely no doubt and when i when i turned up with their with the idea that . that i wanted to be a doctor everybody told me you should not it's not a very good idea you cannot do that you will have severe problems she said son do your own thing if that's what you want to do you're going to match eon is now an emergency room doctor in switzerland i don't consider my condition as a major issue i mean i'm not a little martin for a start on the first but i'm a man i'm trying to be a good doctor and trying to be a good husband and i'm a father i'm a lover and i have short arms and that's it and if people have problems it's accepting me. i have problems to interact with me because i have short arms it's their problem it's not mine.

the fellow means that you're not going to take instruction from any of the things and we know that in the situation of syria states. of agenda the mandate that was given to us is broad it's not targeting one particular side to this conflict it is broad it is focusing on identifying and investigating person and building five on sunday the most seriously please. show me the. local state it's a city it. also says. he knows it.

you could feel it's gotten a little bit he. says. let me go to the destroy it. all first of all it's only about the looking out and the going to walk forward to one of the mighty well columns on the wall she will. cut. you off. to prepare the program i had to look at a lot of material listened to a lot of material and also read a lot of material but that was appalling. and not only that when you get these images into your head and of course the images that i was you befall more graphic and then the thing i could include enough in

a television program. it is not good to see. nothing. good. life. good. family. good good food russia

sharing goodness. the mainstream media is left almost hysterical after trump first tails this week's summit with a success and then invites his russian counterpart for a second meeting in the fall. the most disgraceful of all performances by an american president's fitz's is out it's not possible that the president of the united states is inviting putin so let's collude and. so the president has apparently doubled. also this hour at least twenty people in india reportedly killed in instances of mob violence triggered by the spread of a fake news.