It Only Takes One: How Levaquin Forever Damaged My Life

Guest blog written by Quinolone Vigilance Foundation's Executive Director Rachel Brummert for Clarkson Law Firm.

It Only Takes One: How Levaquin Forever Damaged My Life

June 24, 2014 by Ryan Clarkson

 

I was walking across the parking lot of our local Rite Aid to my car when I could have sworn someone kicked me in the back of my heel.  My right foot went limp and I fell over.  I’d never felt a pain like that in my life.  It turned out that my Achilles tendon had ruptured and the tendon had snapped between the heel and where it balled up in my mid calf.

This was the beginning of a nightmare that has so far lasted eight years.  Since that day in 2006, I’ve ruptured eight other tendons, undergone reconstructive surgeries and a spinal fusion, and dealt with so many other adverse reactions, including peripheral neuropathy, memory impairment, muscle wasting, tinnitus, and cognitive dysfunction.

Rehabilitation after such damaging injuries is tough.  Endless post-op appointments, casts, braces, setbacks in healing, and the amount of pain were exhausting and took a big toll on me emotionally and financially. 

When all of this started, I was 36 years old, I had a career that I loved with immeasurable passion, and life was great.
So you may ask: What happened that caused me to be disabled and in pain every day?

I took a pill.

It’s called Levaquin, and it is a very powerful fluoroquinolone antibiotic. Fluoroquinolones are a unique class of drugs in that they cross the blood-brain barrier and are believed to alter one’s DNA.  What is scarier is that one can have adverse reactions even after stopping the medication, and those adverse reactions can be permanent.

Antibiotics are supposed to help us feel better, not cause disability, or even death, such as what recently happened to one of our own.  Longtime quinolone injury activist Bob Grozier lost his life on June 11, 2014 as a result of complications after he took the fluoroquinolone Cipro. He will be sorely missed.

The pharmaceutical industry is allowed to fast-track medications through the FDA, which lead to flawed clinical trials, and this puts enormous risk on patients.  These medications are meant for life-threatening infections, yet too often, doctors prescribe them for lesser infections in which a safer medication could have been prescribed, or when no infection even exists.


Either way, we encourage patients to do their homework anytime a doctor gives you a script for any drug, but especially for a fluoroquinolone like Levaquin, Cipro, Avelox, Floxin, and others, which can be found on our website www.SaferPills.org.

If you’ve been injured by one of these devastating drugs, QVF encourages you to contact a quinolone injury lawyer to discuss the legal issues related to these disabling injuries.  Clarkson Law Firm has been instrumental in providing information, answering questions, and giving legal options to hundreds of victims of fluoroquinolone toxicity and related injuries across the United States and even throughout the world.  Consultations are free and can be scheduled at www.clarksonlawfirm.com or by calling toll-free at (855) 876-1300. 

You wouldn’t want to live this way. You are your own advocate, and at Quinolone Vigilance Foundation, so are we.

Rachel Brummert
Exceutive Director
Quinolone Vigilance Foundation