Maryland Boy's Parents Say Botox Killed Him

CHARLES COUNTY, Md. (WUSA) -- Joanne Underwood- Boswell's front porch in Bryan's Road, Maryland is a makeshift memorial to her 4 year old son Robbie.

He died in October of 2007--a few days after doctors injected him with botox to ease the pain of Cerebral palsy--with hopes he might someday walk.

"They made it sound like such a great drug,"Joanne Underwood-Boswell says.

After one session--Robbie's parents made a shocking discovery.

"They told me they were going to poke him in two places. They gave him 23 injections."

Robbie died on a tiny couch in the family's living room just a few days later after that. He'd had a stroke--and complications from pneumonia.

Robbie weighed just 19 pounds.

"It was the botox--it took him down to nothing,"Underwood-Boswell says.

She and her husband John Boswell and 14 other families are now suing the makers of Botox--Allergan-- for failing to properly warn users of possible life threatening injuries.

The FDA has not approved the use of Botox to treat Cerebral Palsy. Something Robbie's parents say they were never told.

Dr. Sidney Wolfe of the Public Citizen advocacy group, says he's been sounding the alarm about Botox for months.

"Ten months ago I petitioned the FDA for black box warnings. We wanted every person who gets an injection to be warned to look out of trouble swallowing or breathing, so they can seek immediate emergency care, and we want doctors to be warned of the dangers too,"Wolfe says.

Of 180 cases of severe complications from the FDA's own data,Wolfe documented 16 people deaths,including four children.

"The companies are not doing enough on their own to warn people,"Wolfe says.

The Chief Medical Officer for Allergan released this statement--

"In its entire history there has never been a single reported death where a causal link to Botox Cosmetic was established."

Underwood has another child to care for now--a 17 month old son named Nicholas. He was born with a seizure disorder too.

One thing's for certain, Underwood-Boswell says--he's not getting Botox.

"My main concern now is making sure no other family has to go through anything like this."

If they don't take action soon, Public Citizen may sue the FDA.

"If Germany and the UK are warning their doctors, why can't we do the same thing here," Wolfe says.