Ms. Riechmann was trained as a special-education teacher and taught for years in Myrtle Beach, S.C., where she also led a Girl Scout troop. She moved back to Cincinnati in 2010 to care for her elderly father. In 2016, her customized van broke down and she cannot afford to replace it. Since then, she has had to give up social activities.

Thalidomide was commonly prescribed overseas to treat morning sickness, but Ms. Riechmann said her mother was given the drug because she had a history of miscarriages.

She said she remembered the day a photographer visited to take pictures of her for the lawsuit.

“I was wearing a pair of navy blue shorts and a coordinating yellow and blue striped tank top. It was summer. I can remember my parents being asked to remove my shirt at one point, so that they could get pictures of the arms without the shirt being in the way.”

“Our bodies are breaking down because we are using our joints and parts of our body in ways they weren’t meant to. The human body was not meant to crawl on your knees for 55 years. You learn to walk when you’re a year old, and then you don’t go back to crawling. But I never passed that.”