Sorry to hear about your sister, born in 1944.
Thalidomide was first used in 1957.
Just so ya know...Thalidomide was developed by Nazi scientists as an antidote to nerve gas. https://www.oncozine.com/thalidomides-secret-past-the-link-with-nazi-germany/
My mother had taken some pills when pregnant with my sister, but she didn’t know what it was. But if that’s true, then she concluded when thalidomide was said to have been given to pregnant women that she was responsible for my sister’s birth defect without knowing.