Moms Tricked Into Deadly Experimental Trial

Consent form didn’t reveal risks to their premature babies

WND

By John Aman

Vulnerable, first-time single mom Sharrissa Cook signed up for what sounded like a support group after she delivered her son, Dreshan, born at 25 weeks and weighing a feather-light 1 pound, 11 ounces.

Instead, Cook, then 26, unknowingly put her critically ill, preemie son into a federally funded, experimental trial that subjected babies to the risk of brain injury, blindness and even death.

“I was under the impression this was more of a support group … where they would be holding our hand throughout the process,” she told a public meeting hosted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last August.

Cook’s confusion stems from the experiment’s name, SUPPORT, which stands for Surfactant, Positive Pressure and Oxygenation Randomized Trial.

Instead of a support group, what she actually joined was a controversial, federally financed research effort to determine the best oxygen levels for severely premature infants.

Handed consent form on way to C-section

Other mothers recruited into the study also misunderstood what it was, according to former CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson, who covered the SUPPORT controversy in a series of articles for the DailySignal.com, a Heritage Foundation news site.

Health workers told Bernita Lewis, then 22, that the purpose of enrolling her preemie son was to collect information, including weight and height.

Survonda Banks, then 21, was on her way to an emergency C-section when a worker gave her a consent form. Attkisson reports that “Banks remembers being told only that it was a way to help her baby, Destiny.”

The SUPPORT study was conducted from 2005 to 2009 and involved 1,300 infants born at 24 to 27 weeks. It took place in 23 medical centers nationwide and was led by the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The $20.8 million preemie research program was conducted under the National Institutes of Health, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services.

“I trusted them with my baby’s life”

“I trusted them with my baby’s life,” Cook said last August. “I feel there was a lack of information given to parents, and because of this, I feel taken advantage of and I feel responsible for my child’s participation in this study.”

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Reposted with permission