Is it time to test drugs on pregnant women?
Pregnancy often comes with a lengthy list of physical discomforts, but Kate O’Brien’s were unusual: coughing, night sweats, extreme fatigue. After a series of misdiagnoses, a test finally came back positive. She had tuberculosis. O’Brien, who was 35 and living in New York City, was isolated in a hospital in midtown Manhattan, where she would stay for the next two-plus months.
But the worst was yet to come. The pregnancy quickly made her treatment difficult. Because pregnancy makes the liver more sensitive, she developed drug-induced hepatitis. Even more terrifying: Physicians had little idea how some of the treatments and tests might affect the baby, but O’Brien agreed to them anyway. “You have to know how terrible that felt— like I was signing my child’s health away.”
This story is from the September/October 2018 edition of Mother Jones.
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This story is from the September/October 2018 edition of Mother Jones.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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