SILENT SHOCK

SILENT SHOCK is the definitive account of the thalidomide scandal. Spanning Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Sweden and Australia, it tells the story of what happened when Gruenenthal, a German pharmaceutical company, began to manufacture and market a new wonder drug for morning sickness called thalidomide.

The initial focus of SILENT SHOCK is a woman named Lyn Rowe who was born in Melbourne in 1962, seven months after her mother Wendy was given thalidomide. Lyn was born without arms or legs.

For fifty years the Rowe family cared for Lyn. Decades of exhausting, round-the-clock work. But then in 2011 Lyn Rowe launched a legal claim against the thalidomide companies. Against the odds, she won a multi-million-dollar settlement.

Former journalist Michael Magazanik is one of the lawyers who ran Lyn's case. In Silent Shock he tells the Rowe family story, and reveals the truth about history's most notorious drug. He describes how this drug was sold in many countries around the world, killing and maiming babies. He reveals how Lyn's case was brought to court, and uncovers new evidence about how the drug was marketed to unsuspecting mothers. And he tells the deeply moving story of the Rowe family themselves.

Michael Magazanik has worked as a journalist for the Age, Australian and ABC TV, and is now a lawyer with Slater & Gordon. He lives in Melbourne with his partner and three children.