Well, I landed in Chicago on Friday ahead of the eagerly awaited Paxil induced suicide trial, a trial that has seen legal wrangling (stalling) from the defendent, GlaxoSmithKline. They've been targeting the children of Stewart Dolin, they've been targeting his widow, Wendy, with endless subpeonas. They've been targeting Wendy's expert withnesses, they have filed endless motions, they have, and continue to, denied that Paxil caused Stewart Dolin, a mild-mannered, loving man, to jump in front of a train and take his own life. They are, it appears, adamant that they can defend the allegations that Paxil caused Stewart to jump - Let's see shall we.
I'm here with some familiar faces, all of whom have suffered their own loss through antidepressant induced deaths. Kristina Gehrki, whose daughter, Natalie, ended her life due to antidepressants inducing akathisia. Leonie Fennell is also here with me. Leonie's son, Shane, became so psychotic on the antidepressant he was taking that he carried out an act of homicide before ending his own life. Along with Leonie, Stephany Lynch, whose son, Jake, ended his life after enduring the horrific side effects of his prescription antidepressant. Kim Witczak is also here, her husband, Woody, was prescribed an antidepressant for 'insomnia' - the side effects proving to be too much for him, or rather the akathisia. Woody also ended his own life.
What companies like GlaxoSmithKline want the public to know is that all of the above succumbed because they were mentally ill, or, they had underlying issues. The defence of Glaxo in the Dolin v GSK trial will, more than likely, centre around their claims that Stewart was having problems at work, when in fact, he was highly regarded by both his employees and employers.
This has been a long journey for Stewart's wife and children - GSK's attorneys, King & Spalding, have shown their true colours in the lead up to this case, all of which has been documented on this blog.
It's going to be very interesting to see King & Spalding's Todd Davis perform - it's something that I am very much looking forward to. It's going to be a surreal experience to watch someone defend a company who have knowingly sat on the Paxil suicide information for years, furthermore, for me at least, it's going to be the first time I see a human with zero empathy, providing, of course, that Davis shows a lack of empathy in the courtroom. - Anything uttered in court is a matter for the public record and it's my intention to blog about the events, be they the depositions of the Dolin children who were, it appears, grilled by Davis and his highly paid collegues at King & Spalding, even if video depositions aren't played throughout the trial there will be mention of them from both sides.
Glaxo, as per the norm, are defending the indefensible, in doing so they have hired the services of King & Spalding who have tried desperately hard to throw mud at Plaintiff/s and her experts.
Tomorrow sees the jury being sworn in and then the opening arguments. Glaxo will, no doubt, try and call for a mistrial, they will utter the word "Objection" time and time again. You see, Glaxo don't want the jury to know that Paxil can cause adults to kill themselves, they don't want the jury to know how seemingly normal people can go bat-shit crazy when taking Paxil - they won't want the jury to know how they have hounded Stewart Dolin's widow, family and friends since Wendy first filed.
From me, Bob Fiddaman, Kristina, Leonie, Steph and Kim, we hope justice prevails. We hope Glaxo's internal documents that they want to keep away from the public because these documents will show GlaxoSmithKline in a bad light.
Glaxo's CEO, Andrew Witty, leaves GSK next month - he beleives he has left the compny in good shape - I believe Andrew Witty is completely deluded.
Trial starts tomorrow - First blog about it will appear on here shortly after day one finishes. This will continue daily.
As I said, anything uttered in court will be shared.
Bring it on Glaxo!
Bob Fiddaman.
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