Prologue to Perilous Pills

IT ALL STARTED for me with a minor sinus infection and taking a prescription called Levaquin, a fluoroquinolone antibiotic. Severe stiffness and pain came on suddenly in legs, ankles, hips, arms, wrists and shoulders as I awoke one morning and was so disabling, I was barely able to roll out of bed. I discovered later that I had also suffered a tear in a shoulder’s rotator cuff. It turned out that I was suffering from an all-body tendon inflammation called tendonitis. That happened several days after I had taken the medicine prescribed by my doctor. I was convinced that this sudden painful and disabling condition had to be the result of taking that drug.  

As I spoke with friends about my experience, I began to hear other stories of bodily harm, sometimes permanent, from taking this particular drug. The internet revealed hundreds of tales of healthy, active people who had had debilitating experiences after taking these medications. Organizations and help groups were active and thriving. The manufacturer of Levaquin was facing thousands of lawsuits brought by injured patients. The government’s Food and Drug Administration had slapped a black box warning on Levaquin cautioning about a multitude of possible dangers. 

When I went back to read the information flier given by the pharmacy with my prescription, I saw in bold letters that taking Levaquin could quite possibly cause rupture of the Achilles tendon. Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, publisher of Worst Pills, Best Pills, had deemed Levaquin a Limited Use Drug.

What was going on here?  

Why were there so many people being hurt and disabled by these prescription medications? How do these damaging drugs get on the market? Are prescriptions from your doctor safe to take? Are these drugs given to patients in hospitals and other institutions? Why are doctors prescribing pills that can cause such harm? Is anyone doing anything about this?

I became alarmed and as a journalist, I thought I should investigate further.  

This journey researching fluoroquinolones has taken more than six years. It has yielded hundreds of sources of information. It has revealed a robust internet that teems with stories told by victims about their heartbreaking experiences after they took these particular pills. With most doctors denying that their patients had been injured and scoffing at the suggestion, it appeared that the internet had become a last resort for victims crying out for help.  

I discovered that the U.S.’s regulatory agency is remarkably unreliable, biased and slow to respond to reports of drug injury. Research exposed a pharmaceutical industry that was making billions of dollars from sales of fluoroquinolones as they became among one of the most prescribed meds in the world. It was disturbing to see that sales continued even as injuries and life-long disabilities had been reported for nearly 40 years since they had been introduced to the marketplace. Drug companies, it appeared, are driven by huge profits, leading them to undertake questionable, even dangerous, promotion and sales practices. Hospitals were freely giving these antibiotics as a preventative rather than a cure.

And yes, the doctor’s office had been invaded, too. The influence of pharmaceutical companies, regulations, restrictions, and burnout have taken a toll on physicians and the patients in their care.

I have been appalled, astounded and angered by what I have learned. I hope the reader will experience similar reactions upon reading this book and will advocate rigorously for change and awareness. This volume is filled with revelations about the manufacture, regulation and practice of prescribing a class of antibiotics that has injured hundreds of thousands of individuals who trusted their doctors and the medical system to heal and not harm them.  

It has become my mission, my passion, to create awareness and warn patients and their loved ones of the risks associated with taking fluoroquinolones as well as reveal the larger story behind them.