Sybil Shainwald, a lawyer, who for almost half a century represented women whose health had been irreparably and often destructively damaged by poorly tested medicines and medical devices, died on April 9 at her home in Manhattan. He was 96 years old.
Laurie Shainwald Kleeger’s daughter announced the death, which was not widely mentioned.
Ms. Shainwald was 48 years old and recently graduated from the Law School when she was hired by Julien, Schlesinger & Finz, New York’s law firm and assigned to the team representing Joyce Bichler, a 25 -year -old social worker who was the survivor of a rare cancer, adenocarkoma. Her cancer was caused by a drug her mother had taken during pregnancy: Diathystill, a synthetic hormone known as DES and was sold with many brands to prevent miscarriage.
At 18, Ms Bichler had undergone a radical hysterectomy, which removed her ovaries, her trumpets and two -thirds of her vagina. It was one of the thousands of women who became known as des daughters for cancers and the infertility they suffered because their mothers had taken the medicine. He pushed Eli Lilly, one of the largest manufacturers of the drug, for compensation.
In 1947, when the DES was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in pregnant women, studies had shown that they produced cancers in mice and rats and that they could cross the placenta and harm the fetus. However, companies traded it as a safe medicine for conditions, from detection during pregnancy to miscarriages and continued to do so even after the start of the references that it was, in fact, ineffective for the treatment of these conditions.
In the late 1960s, cases of adenocarcinoma of clear cells began to be diagnosed with young women whose mothers had taken the drug. In 1971, the FDA told doctors to stop prescribing it. Until then, according to the National Cancer Institute, it is estimated that five to 10 million people – women who were prescribed and their children – had been exposed to the des.
When Ms Bichler’s case went to court in 1979, it was just one of the many lawsuits filed over the years. However, no one was successful because it was difficult to identify which manufacturer had produced the drug in each case. About 300 companies had done the des.
Ms Bichler’s team presented a new argument: that all manufacturers shared responsibility for the drug and its results. After five days of discussion, the jury agreed and Ms Bichler was awarded $ 500,000.
Ms Shainwald’s role was vital, Mrs Bichler said in an interview: “I was this shy young woman who had all these men talking about my private organs in a public environment and was overwhelming, I was terrified.
On the fourth day of the Jury’s discussions, Mrs Bichler said, Eli Lilly offered her $ 100,000. Most of her team suggested that she may want to accept it.
“Sybil took my husband and I aside and said,” What do you want you and Mike to do? Don’t be afraid, “recalls Mrs Bichler.” Sybil gave me the power and permission to say, “we are not defined.”
He added, “I did what I had to do, but it was really Sybil who made it happen.”
In the early 1980s, she had opened her own office and was a lawyer for des Daughters. In the next four decades, she successfully represented many hundreds of women.
In 1996, he won a category-care lawsuit for the establishment of a fund for des Daughters, paid by the manufacturers of the drug, to cover medical and consulting costs and a promotion program.
But des was not the only dangerous product that helped women receive compensation.
She represented women whose silicone breast implants had caused autoimmune problems. It represented women who had been damaged by the Dalkon shield-the endometrial contraceptive that caused pelvic infections and infertility-and those affected by Norplant, the long-term hypocal contraceptive. (Years ago, he had urged FDA not to approve the use of Norplant, warning of his unknown side effects.)
It has helped women outside the United States to receive compensation for their defective breast implants and those who were prescribed the Dalkon shield. It was anesthetized to find out that women in Africa had never been said about the side effects of Dalkon Shield and that doctors were still prescribing it, even after pulling it from the US market.
It also teaches the dangers of Depo-Proverra, another contraceptive associated with cancers in laboratory animals that have been prescribed for decades, starting in the late 1960s, though it will not be evaluated, although it will not be evaluated, FDA for use until 1992.
“Contraceptive development has always meant drugs and devices for women,” Ms. Shainwald said in an oral story carried out by the US veteran Feminist in 2019.
Ms Shainwald “was an important legal fighter for the women’s health movement,” said Cindy Pearson, a former executive director of the National Women’s Health Network. “She will sink her teeth on an issue and no matter how big her opponent was.”
Sybil Brodkin was born on April 27, 1928, in New York, the only daughter of Anne (Zimmerman) Brodkin and Morris Brodkin, who held a restaurant. He was 16 when he graduated from James Madison Gymnasium in Brooklyn and entered the William & Mary College, Williamsburg, VA., Where he won a degree in history in 1948.
He married Sidney Shainwald, an accountant and lawyer – he was the Deputy Director of the Consumer Association, now consumer reports – in 1960, and taught English in the high lifting high schools of their four children.
He received a Masters Degree in History at Columbia University in 1972 and in the same year won a grant to create an oral history of the consumer movement and to establish the Consumer Movement Movement Center, which headed until 1978.
She entered the New York Law School as a night student when she was 44 and won her degree in 1976, hoping to study the law in Columbia when she gets a degree in History there – the school offered a joint program – but the dean told him “
Ms Shainwald still refers to her death.
In addition to Ms Kleeger, Ms Shainwald survives another daughter, Louise Nasr. A son, Robert. A brother, Barry Schwartz. four grandchildren. and five big-gongs. Mr Shainwald died in 2003. Marsha Shainwald’s daughter died in 2013.
“I know that I have a few more years of work ahead of me, since my practice is made up of corporate America on behalf of women,” Ms. Shainwald said in a speech in 2016.
