'Recognition' for Pickering man born with birth defects as review finds controversial drug 'should have been stopped' a decade earlier

Kevin Watson’s mother took Primodos - the most widely used hormone pregnancy test at the time - in 1963 when she was pregnant. The Association For Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Tests estimates that thousands of families, like Mr Watson’s, were affected by birth defects due to the drugs.

The review examined how the health service responded to concerns with hormone pregnancy tests, which were also linked to miscarriage, plus concerns over pelvic mesh - which has been linked to complications including chronic pain, infections and loss of sex life; and the anti-epilepsy drug sodium valproate - which has been linked to physical malformations, autism and developmental delay in children when it is taken during pregnancy.

Mr Watson said: “My mum didn’t drink, she didn’t smoke. There was no history of genetic diseases in the family or anything like that. I’ve got an outgoing personality and I’ve always had a professional career, but when I was younger - you can imagine being at school in the 70s, there was a lot of prejudice and a lot of bullying.”

He said that the initial investigations “died a death” because there wasn’t any transparency over information.

“We just got on with life really. In the 70s it was very cloak and dagger,” Mr Watson added.

He said the review was “not about a monetary reward or compensation, but about acknowledgement and recognition”. He added: “This is what the damage was for using a drug that wasn’t thoroughly tested.”

The review, led by Baroness Cumberlege, concluded that patients came to “avoidable harm” because the healthcare system failed to respond in a speedy and appropriate way when serious concerns were raised about some medical treatments.

It detailed “heart-wrenching stories” of how treatments provided on the NHS had “damaged lives” and highlighted how campaigners have fought for decades to “achieve acknowledgement” of their suffering.

“We met with hundreds of affected patients and their families... it became all too clear that those who have been affected have been dismissed, overlooked, and ignored for far too long.

The issue here is not one of a single or a few rogue medical practitioners, or differences in regional practice. It is system-wide,” the review states.

More than 700 families from across the UK affected by the issues gave “harrowing details of their damaged lives”, to the review. In a letter to Health Secretary Matt Hancock, Baroness Cumberlege said the review found that the healthcare system was “disjointed, siloed, unresponsive and defensive”.

She added: “We must ensure the risks of increasingly complex healthcare are understood and, where the system is not sure of the risks, it must say so. Had it done so in the case of our three interventions, I have no doubt that much anguish, suffering and many ruined lives could have been avoided.”

The report estimated that thousands of women could have been spared complications due to pelvic mesh had guidelines been followed; hormone pregnancy tests should have been stopped more than a decade before they were, and an estimated 20,000 people were exposed to sodium valporate as babies.

Health Minister Nadine Dorries said thanked the patients and families who shared their “brave” and “harrowing” experiences for the report, but stopped short of apologising.

She said a full response would come but that, the NHS “must do better”. She added: Our health system must learn from those it has failed.”