Episode 11: Heather McCarthy

10/26/21 • 52 min

In this episode, we hear from Heather McCarthy, mother of O'Shea McCarthy, known as Shea, who was born in December of 1988.

His love of art and music was apparent from an early age, and by the time he reached adolescence, he had become proficient in a variety of instruments and was the recipient of numerous art awards. Shea excelled in his studies throughout his K through 12 education, especially in his love of nature and science. Upon graduation from high school, he was admitted to Purdue University where he was accepted in the Earth and Atmospheric Science Program. Prior to undergoing corrective surgery for a deviated septum the summer before his sophomore year, Shea was prescribed an extremely large dose of the antibiotic Levaquin. After a three-week course of this veritable atomic bomb of antibiotics, Shea's life would never be the same. Heather remembers that her son became a shadow of the “intelligent, curious, beautiful young man” he was as he was suddenly struggling with anxiety, cardiac issues, insomnia, and a host of other adverse effects caused by Levaquin. Despite telling his treatment providers that he believed his condition was the result of an adverse effect of Levaquin, they chose a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and subsequently prescribed a host of psychotropic drugs that included Risperdal, Lamictal and Ativan.
[Heather McCarthy] I think these drugs are so insidious on how they affect your spirit and your mind and, my belief, your soul, because it’s such a slow walk. It’s such a slow chipping away at who he was. And his anxiety was all the time. He, you know, was twitching a lot and he had so much anxiety. And I think he just got tired. And how degrading it is to not be listened to and to not be believed. I mean, we have medical records that says, “I’m afraid,” he’s telling his therapist, “I’m afraid I’m going to crash my car." In hindsight, it’s just this ridiculous, to me, belief that he was — you know, he’s going, he’s getting the treatment, he’s going to get better. Like, this is going to pass. This is a brilliant young man. You know? Like, this is going to pass.”

Heather McCarthy is an attorney from Northwest Indiana who holds advanced degrees in public administration and English lit. Prior to establishing a private law practice, she was an executive in the mental health industry. She served in the role of vice president at the administrative services organization for Regional Mental Health Center, the facility that treated her son, O’Shea. After his death, Heather pursued an eight-year legal case alleging medical malpractice of the mental health treatment providers in the wrongful death of her son. She also testified, with numerous other victims, at the 2015 FDA hearings that resulted in additional black box warnings for the antibiotic Levaquin and the acknowledgment of a disability, Fluoroquinolone Associated Disability, of which symptoms include cardiac issues, insomnia, restlessness, and psychosis, some of which can be permanent. Heather also supports the efforts of MISSD in creating awareness about akathisia, a condition that was fatal for Shea after receiving mental health treatment.

In this episode we hear two interviews with Heather, the first of which was recorded in late 2019, following the MISSD organization's silent auction in Chicago. At that time Heather's lawsuit was in progress and she was not permitted to make mention of it. Later, we hear an interview recorded just last month, following resolution of that litigation.

In this episode, we hear from Heather McCarthy, mother of O'Shea McCarthy, known as Shea, who was born in December of 1988.

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Episode 10: Angela Peacock, MSW

In this episode, we hear from Angela Peacock. At age 18, Angela went into the United States Army, where she rose to the rank of sergeant. Five years into her service, the U.S. invaded Iraq and Angela was deployed to Baghdad. For a variety of reasons, the deployment took a physical and mental toll on her, and within six months she was medevacked out of Iraq to recover in Germany. A day after her evacuation, one of the soldiers in her platoon was badly injured, requiring medical assistance in the same military hospital where she was recovering.

[Angela Peacock] And he was like clearly traumatized; you know, it had just happened 48 hours prior. I don’t know how to explain it. I just felt, like, out of control. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to handle it. I just said OK, I can’t hear any more; I’ve got to go. And I just walked out of his room and I walked down the hall, and I didn’t have anything in my mind at that point, to, like, go get help; I just saw the sign; it said “Psychiatry,” arrow. I was like, I need to talk to somebody right now, and I just walked straight into the office and I was like, “My soldier just told me what happened; I don’t know what to do; I’m having a hard time as it is, readjusting to Iraq — or back to Germany. I feel like I almost died,” and then the answer was, here’s a prescription.

Angela Peacock is a former U.S. Army sergeant and subject of the documentary film “Medicating Normal.” Diagnosed with PTSD after one deployment to Iraq in 2003, she was overmedicated for it for over a decade and a half. She suffered from akathisia during a medically supervised taper and during withdrawal. Angie is part of the “Medicating Normal” outreach team, having already facilitated more than 150 post-screening panel discussions with communities worldwide. Her past roles include Veterans of Foreign Wars Legislative Fellow, Wounded Warrior Project Courage Award recipient, and finalist for Student Veteran of the Year with Student Veterans of America. She is a mental health advocate, writer, and YouTube creator who travels in her campervan across the United States with her service dog, Raider, in an effort to improve the mental health care system for veterans and civilians alike.

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Episode 12: Bob Fiddaman

On this episode, we hear from author, blogger, researcher, and self-described humanist and humorist Bob Fiddaman. His eponymously titled blog has focused on drug company and regulatory malfeasance since making its debut in 2006. At the time, Bob, an Englishman living in Birmingham, was taking himself off of Seroxat, a GlaxoSmithKline-produced antidepressant known here in America as Paxil. After making a protracted attempt at tapering off of the drug, he eventually decided to go cold turkey, a course of action he strongly advises against.

[Bob Fiddaman] "Within 24 hours, I was pretty much in a fetal position, you know, suffering stomach cramps, head zaps, intrusive thoughts. It was pretty bad. And it took about three months of absolute torture to get through to the other side, but I pretty much knew once I did reach the other side — because I was getting all my empathy, for one; that was coming back, so I’d be listening to music that I’d never really listened to before and really focus in on the lyrics. So, you know, my type of music is rock, AC/DC in particular. I started listening to the Dixie Chicks’ “Travelin’ Soldier,” and was listening to the lyrics and the story and I was crying, and then Martina McBride “Concrete Angel.” I was just crying my eyes out at these lyrics. So for the first time in a very long time I was able to sort of, like, feel things again, feel emotion again."

Bob Fiddaman was born in London in 1964, the youngest of three children. In 1967, his family moved to Birmingham where he has lived since, though he now splits his time between England and his adopted home in Panama. Bob married in 1987, divorced in 2006, and has three grown children. In 2006, he created the SEROXAT SUFFERERS STAND UP AND BE COUNTED blog, later changing the name to FIDDAMAN BLOG. Bob has met with the U.K.'s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on a number of occasions but has now ceased contact with them. He has also been a thorn in the side of drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, reporting on numerous inquests and wrongful death lawsuits brought against the company by bereaved families. In our interview, you'll hear about some of these, including Dolin v. GSK, the 2017 trial that MISSD founder Wendy Dolin was the plaintiff in. Bob is the author of a 2011 memoir called The Evidence, However, Is Clear: The Seroxat Scandal, and has recently finished a science fiction novel called No Other Man. [Bob Fiddaman: “It's about angels, it’s about numerology, it’s about demons and it’s about love.] We spoke over Zoom.