Tim Tobin was content with his simple life, living with his wife and baby daughter in a small Montana town. They often visited Deb’s parents in the neighboring Wyoming town of Gillette. The close-knit family adored their first grandchild, Alyssa. Tim and Deb planned to raise their children in Montana, surrounded by their loved ones.
However, their lives were rocked when Deb and Alyssa stayed with her parents, and Don Schell, her father, suffered from an episode of depression. He was prescribed an antidepressant called Paxil, and two days later, he shot and killed his wife, daughter, and granddaughter before taking his own life. Tim was devastated when he discovered the gruesome scene, and it took a while for him to recover.
After analyzing the situation, the family concluded that Don’s medication caused his actions, leading them to sue Paxil’s manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline. Although the family was awarded $6.4 million, their real motive was to raise awareness about the harmful effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Paxil. Tim hoped that their success would lead to significant changes in the pharmaceutical industry.
However, he was disappointed when no action was taken, feeling that his voice wouldn’t be heard since he was an ordinary person from Montana. Since then, Tim has learned more about the effects of depression and believes that his father-in-law’s actions were due to the medication. Don was an essential figure in Tim’s life, and he cherished the time they spent together, especially after Deb’s pregnancy.
Don worked as a pumper for the oil company and was slightly reserved, except with his family. His sudden tragic end left Tim to live with the trauma of his wife and daughter’s loss and his father-in-law’s death.
Tobin and Deb were both overprotective parents. Tobin wouldn’t leave his daughter or Deb in a situation he felt could become dangerous. Tobin had never seen Schell become violent before. Schell used to love holding and fussing over Alyssa and would ignore everyone else. However, on the night of February, Tobin received a call from Deb, and by the time Tobin arrived at their home on the next afternoon, they were already dead.
Tobin and a neighbor broke a window and finally entered the house after a police officer arrived. They discovered that everyone was dead. Tobin had frequent nightmares about what he witnessed, and he went to a therapist. He even felt that suicide was the only way to end his sorrow. He traveled across the world and took risks like mountain climbing and bungee jumping, but eventually, he just wanted to go home.
Even though his life had moved on, Tobin still remembered his daughter’s birthday, their anniversary, and Deb’s perfume scent. Tobin is furious with Glaxo’s representative, Ian Hudson, who dismissed the occasional killing or suicide caused by Paxil as insufficient evidence of the drug’s adverse effects.
Tobin believes that investigating drug side effects is necessary, even if only a few people have bad reactions to a particular drug. He concludes that four people dying from a drug is too many, regardless of how insignificant it is statistically.
