When Bonnie was worried about continuing to take Paxil, she was told not to worry as it was classified as Category B. Tragically, her son died of congenital heart defects; five years later she discovered that Paxil is now Category D.

(In December 2005, the FDA asked Glaxo Smith Kline, the maker of Paxil, to change the pregnancy category to D, a stronger warning. Category D means that studies in pregnant women have shown a risk to the fetus ).

“I first started taking Paxil when I was in high school,” says Bonnie (not her real name pending a lawsuit). Then I stopped taking it when I got pregnant with my oldest child – I have four children. But when I got pregnant with Keagan, my life had become difficult and I was very depressed; my husband’s job meant we had to move away from family and friends and I started taking Paxil again. I called my mom (she’s a nurse) and asked her if there was any risk in taking this medicine. She looked it up in the drug book and it was category B, so there were no warnings or side effects; this would have been in late 2001.

My husband lost his job again and we moved even further away so I stayed with Paxil. She gave birth to Keagan and when he was only six hours old the doctor told me that he had to be transferred to Children’s Hospital because his oxygen saturation was low and they had detected a heart murmur.

As soon as he was transferred, Keagan underwent his first heart surgery. He was diagnosed with critical aortic stenosis: his aortic valve was not working properly. He was also diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), one of the rarer heart defects, which means the left ventricle isn’t working properly or might be missing. He also had endocardial fibroelastosis (EFE).

It was heartbreaking: everything I went through to get pregnant by him and then being told I had serious heart defects… We had family who flew in from Canada, Oregon and Washington. My sister took my children to Washington with her. I slept in the hospital almost every night and a lot of my family stayed across the street, in a place like a Ronald Macdonald almshouse.

At three weeks old, Keagan had a swollen aortic valve; she had open heart surgery scheduled and another emergency surgery the next day. When I arrived at the hospital on the morning of February 7, it was written in his file that the family should spend time with him and hug him as much as possible. Until that moment I had not been allowed to hug him.

I called my husband to come back to the hospital immediately and then it took two nurses and the respiratory therapist to move Keagan from his bed into my arms. Between my family and I, we hugged him all day. Then he started having problems with his blood and oxygen levels, so the doctors asked us if we wanted a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order.

We opted for the DNR to be implemented and called members of our church; They had been so supportive. My minister, his wife, and other members of the congregation came. Things weren’t getting any better. Keagan’s white blood cell count went way up and he was bleeding into one of his lungs. The doctor met with me, my husband, and our minister and asked if we wanted to let him go or seek treatment.

At that point we decided to let him go. At 10 p.m., with Keagan in my arms, our minister sat in the living room and prayed for about 10 minutes, then my husband and I were left alone with our son. The nurse stopped everything except the pain medication and the doctor took the ventilator off. At 11 p.m. his heart stopped beating.

We had a little service for our son and my church was wonderful – they paid for the service and Keagan’s cremation. We gave the hospital permission to autopsy his heart and lung, and my husband and I agreed to genetic testing. At the time I had no idea there was a connection to Paxil. After the autopsy results came in on him, we were told it was something that just happened; there was no explanation.

Last week I saw a TV commercial for a law firm that said there was a possible link between Paxil and congenital heart defects. I called my mom right away and she looked it up in her medication book again; this time it was a risk category D. Later that night, my sister looked up Paxil on the internet and said there was a lot of information about the link between Paxil and coronary heart defects. She found her website for me, and the next day a lawyer contacted me.

I almost didn’t pursue this lawsuit because I had come to terms with Keagan’s death and now everything is fresh again. But I don’t want other parents to have to go through what I went through.