After 50 long years, I’ve found my baby son’s grave. Now we need answers
COUPLE’S WAIT OVER IN SEARCH FOR RESTING PLACE Primodos campaigners help parents find death certificate
A mum who blames a hormone pregnancy test for the death of her baby son has discovered where he is buried – more than 50 years after he died.
In 1967, Helen Torr was 16 and took Primodos – a hormone pregnancy test given to women.
Nine months after she took the drug, her son Jack was born with serious head and brain injuries. He died a week later in hospital.
However, Helen, now 69, and her husband Jack, 71, were never told what happened to his body.
She got in touch with Primodos campaigners af ter reading about their plight in the Sunday Mail.
Charity office worker Helen said: “As soon as my son was born, he was taken away. I didn’t get to hold him but we named him Jack.
“The hospital took care of his body. My husband and I never knew what happened to him or where he was buried. However, last week we finally got to visit his grave and it was incredibly emotional.”
On advice from fellow Primodos campaigners,Helencontactedregistrars in Rotherham, where she applied for a death certificate for her son.
Last month, she learned Jack was buried on October 23, 1967, in East Herringthorpe Cemetery, Rotherham.
She said: “I didn’t think that after more than 50 years I’d ever be able to get a death certif icate. Now we know where he is, we need answers.” Primodos was available from 1958 until 1978, when it was taken off the market. But by then it had been taken by 1.5million women in the UK.
Campaigners believe it was responsible for causing thousands of abnormalities in babies – including heart defects, brain injuries and still births.
Primodos was made by German firm Schering, which was taken over by Bayer in 2006. Bayer denies Primodos was responsible for causing deformities.
It said: “No new scientific knowledge has been produced which would call into question the validity of the previous assessment of there being no link between the use of Primodos and the occurrence of such congenital abnormalities.”
An independent review into Primodos is expected to conclude this year.