Calgary woman fights to be recognized as thalidomide survivor

A Calgary woman is fighting to be recognized as a thalidomide survivor after struggling to provide medical records required by the federal government to qualify for a compensation package announced last year.

Thalidomide was a drug prescribed for morning sickness in pregnant women in the 1960s until it was found to cause significant birth defects.

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In March of 2015, the Conservative government provided a compensation package for victims who could prove their deformities were due to the drug.

But for Maria McKenzie, digging up 50-year-old medical records has been a problem.

“My parents are long gone, their medical records will be gone with them,” McKenzie told CBC News.

Calgarian Maria McKenzie says she was denied federal compensation for being a victim of thalidomide, a drug prescribed in the 1960s for morning sickness, because she can’t provide original medical records to qualify. (Kate Adach/CBC)

“So the standards these people have put to us are not only impossible, they don’t even exist.”

McKenzie was born in 1963 with short arms, twisted hands and no thumbs and she believes her mother had been prescribed thalidomide while pregnant.

Maria McKenzie was born in 1963 and believes her mother had been prescribed thalidomide for morning sickness. McKenzie was born with twisted hands, short arms and no thumbs. (Kate Adach/CBC)

“Back then, in the 60s, if a doctor told you to take pills, the doctor’s word was gospel,” she said.

But McKenzie can’t prove the doctor’s orders and that means she can’t be compensated.

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The hospital where she was born burned down and the doctor who delivered her has died, she said.

The federal government has given payments to about 120 Canadians with symptoms like hers, but McKenzie is among at least two dozen others who say they aren’t able to meet the qualifications.

Her lawyer, Elise Calvert, helped McKenzie apply with other documentation, like doctors’ notes that recognize the condition.

Elise Calvert is McKenzie’s lawyer. She says, even without original medical records, doctors agree that McKenzie is a thalidomide survivor. (Kate Adach/CBC)

“They say, ‘Maria has thalidomide poisoning. These are her symptoms,’ It’s just an accepted thing that Maria has thalidomide,” Calvert said.

McKenzie says doctors have written prescriptions for her that include the statement “due to her thalidomide poisoning.”

Despite that, her application was rejected.

• ‘I can’t go down without a fight’: B.C. woman denied recognition as thalidomide survivor
• The debt we owe Canada’s thalidomide sufferers

Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott says it was the Conservatives that set the criteria, but the Liberals have no plans to change the process.

About a dozen people in McKenzie’s situation, calling themselves “Forgotten Survivors,” plan to keep the fight going.

They travelled to Ottawa last week to protest and keep the pressure on.

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