http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/04/transcripts/2004-4065T1.htm
DR. GOODMAN: Speaker number 30, please.
MS. HATCHER: My name is Beverly Hatcher
and I want to tell you how Paxil destroyed my
mother's life. She was a normal, healthy person
who loved life to the utmost. She loved to eat,
cook, travel and talk on the phone. She had a
smile for everyone that she met. She had no
history of mental illness.
In 1997, after my dad died, she moved from
North Carolina to live with me, in Virginia. She
soon found work but later chose to retire. She
soon ran across another one of her childhood
sweethearts. They began to travel everywhere.
This was life before Paxil. On August 18, 2003,
she was prescribed Paxil because of a small bout of
depression that was due because of a heart attack
of her closest cousin. She quickly
transformed into someone that began to complain of having
constant bad dreams, having no appetite, being
nervous, hearing voices. She stopped taking baths
at night and bit her nails down to nubs. She said
she thought things were crawling all over her and
that she was losing her mind. Nothing mattered
anymore. These were not normal signs of normal
grief.
On September 2nd, 2003, the day before her
daughter's birthday, she hung herself in that
daughter's basement. This was 16 days afte
starting Paxil. She was only 60. How did Paxil
get the FDA stamp of approval and make it to
market? How or why would any healthcare provider
prescribe such a medicine capable of causing this?
As a nurse and healthcare provider myself, we take
an oath to save life, not destroy it.
Are drug companies providing the FDA and
healthcare providers all the facts about Paxil?
No. Drug companies are not telling the truth to
the FDA, healthcare providers and certainly not to
consumers because they have figured out a way
around all the loopholes. In this case, the FDA's
guidelines are meaningless and they contain even
bigger loopholes.
To the FDA, we will never understand why
this had to happen to us. There is no excuse. It
was your job to protect my mother and not the drug
company's profits. Because of this, we will be
motherless for the rest of our lives. Nothing can
change that. When will enough be enough? Stop
taking innocent lives.
To the drug companies, and especially to
the FDA, this T-shirt sums up how we, the family of
Barbara Jean Darton, feel about Paxil. The back
reads "cocaine is an illegal drug that kills." On
the front it reads, "Paxil is a legal drug that
kills." Don't put another family through this.
Remove Paxil from society. Until then, remember
the faith and the message of this T-shirt and do
the right thing. Sincerely, in memory of my
mother, Ms. Barbara Jean Darden. Thank you.