Stock Photo - A Contergan affected, disabled child during swim practice in a practice pool at the Müngersdorfer Stadium in Cologne, Germany, 30 May 1968. The girl attends a day care center for children suffering from dysmelia in the Klettenberg district of Cologne. The center tries to prepare the children for a future life with healthy children. The program includes a weekly trip to the pool. In the late 1950s and 60s about 8,000 to 12,000 children were born with serious deformities, many died, due to the use of the sleeping drug Contergan by their mothers during pregnancy. Drugs containing thalidomide, Contergan among them, were distributed starting 1 October 1957 by Stollberg (located near Aachen, Germany) based pharmaceuticals company Grünenthal without proper testing and without barring the drug's use during pregnancy. Reports of serious damages to people's health were ignored until a newspaper article in November 1961 forced the company to stop all sales and withdraw all products containing thalidomide. - Köln/Germany