“Death by Levaquin” Brain/Body Toxic Drug

….When will this insanity end ?  Another severely poisoned quinolone victim.  

in sept of ‘98 my sister was floxxed subsequent to a hospital admission for asthma.  she died on the table, but was ‘brought back’ by medical workers.  unfortunately, the effects have been both devastating and permanent.  similar to the effects of a severe stroke, my sister still is 100% disabled, cannot drive, write, and falls often.  she also has trouble concentrating, or remembering short and long term.  i see many notices of legal actions for other symtoms of levaquin poisoning, but apparently her reaction was more rare than the norm.  i just last week filed an adverse event report with the fda.

I wish my vision wasn’t damaged and I was in less pain. I could do more quinolone advocacy. I somehow need to trick my brain into thinking I am not in pain or that I am in less pain so I can get more done. Everything is done at a snails pace. The narcotics make me loopy and give me even more equilibrium issues at times. The Lyrica for my pain also slows me down. My sister told me to make my mess my message. That is what I am trying to do. My mom takes my quinolone media packets to the post office. My sister told me not to get discouraged that most media outlets don’t do stories on this toxicity. She said it is like sales. You have to send so many out before you can get one place to even think about doing a possible story. It is like cold calling in sales. The media gets so much advertising revenue from the pharmaceutical industry that they don’t like to bite the hand that feeds them.

I sent a quinolone packet to Dr. Mercola at www.Mercola.com He has a very big following. I didn’t get a response. I had a quinolone victim give me another mailing address for him so I will ship off another quinolone information packet for him. Maybe something will come of it. I sent a quinolone packet to Dr. Kevin Pho. He is a USA Today medical contributor. He has a medical blog that has thousands of visitors on it. http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2004/05/about-kevin-md.html

Bob G. and I will be in a news segment coming out in May. The subject is on how the FDA is failing the american public. There are other victims of other drugs in it along with our quinolone stories. I am disappointed it is only going to be 3 minutes long. Bob and I worked real hard on this one. The story is going out to a lot of media outlets though. Bob’s fqvictims.org web address will be in the segment. I think Bob will get a lot of calls on his toll free quinolone hotline number. Maybe another news station will pick up on this story and do another story strictly on long term fluoroquinolone damage.

I sent quinolone media packets to Cynthia Tucker at the Atlanta Constitution Journal Newpaper and to Maureen Dowd of the New York Times. They are nationally syndicated writers and their articles appear  in the Harrisburg, PA newspaper that my parents get. They are both liberal leaning writers. They have written articles in the past that have been critical of corporations and the FDA. I will work on trying to get our story to more media outlets soon.   

I was talking to my friend Bob G. the other day. He lost his marriage and the over 90% of his bank account from Cipro poisoning. He can’t take care of his daughter either since he is disabled. His sister does that now as Bob’s mother has to take care of him. Fluoroquinolones not only damage the individual that consumes this poison but it also destroys the rest of the family unit that has to take care of the disabled person. Family relationships change considerably for those that have been afflicted. I got a call from  Tom in California last week. He actually went to my same small school in Hershey, PA. That shows how common these quinolone reactions are. Tom has been poisoned for almost four years now and he told me his wife is having a hard time believing him since it has been so long. He told me that he is having a lot of relationship problems because of his quinolone reaction. He has a small child to take care of too. So unfortunate. This is what gets me so angry about these defective antibiotics. Not only does it cripple the individual it also cripples the family relationships. It is very difficult for families to weather this never ending quinolone toxicity storm.

I talked a school teacher a few weeks ago. She hasn’t been able to work for about a year now from her quinolone poisoning.  I think she is improving to the point of now going back to work part time which is very good news. I talked to her her husband and he had to take so much time off work to help care for her. They have spent a ton of money trying to get her better not to mention the all of the lost wages. I have gotten so many emails from quinolone victims where they have said that their spouse either doesn’t fully believe or has a very difficult time believing that an antibiotic could do this long term damage. I wonder what ever happened to DB Cipro- Death by Cipro blog. He would often mention his wife didn’t believe this toxicity. I hope he is still alive. I wonder what percentage of families have been ruined because of innocent victims that have suffered moderate to severe poisonings. That is the part of this toxicity that is never really measured. The financial toll from being unable to work, large medical bills ect. can easily ruin a family. It is such a terrible shame. The drug companies sweep everything under the rug because their only resposibility is to maximize shareholder return. And in doing that they need to cover this toxicity up as much as possible. More awareness leads to less prescriptions leads to less profit.

Bob G. once told me that one of his friends told his sister “Is Bob still talking about that Cipro thing.”  That is the way it was put- “That Cipro thing”  Comments like that just illustrate the lack of understanding of this toxicity. All of us that have been moderately or severely poisoned are living in a physical and or neurological inferno. The passage of time seems to be the only way out for most of us. These defective antibiotics have far reaching effects that permeate into the rest of the family unit that causes their lives to be very difficult as well. It is hard to believe that these drug companies that know all this don’t really care at all. No conscious. They look into a mirror and the only thing looking back is an empty soul and a large bank account. 

Good video on the FDA and the food industry. Voice quality is a little poor from this doctor. Need for clean unadulterated food. Industry, both food and pharmaceutical, have run the FDA.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NCip93-sqk

Not mentioned in this video is that quinolones are in some food that we eat, especially from the far east. Imported shrimp can be very dangerous for those who have been floxed. I communicated with a quinolone victim that suffered terribly for about two years. She improved and then had a terrible setbackfrom eating shrimp. She thought it was fresh catch shrimp but it must have been farmed.  She had a four month relapse that required narcotics. Fortunately she improved from the relapse. The insidious part about toxic quinolone residue in food is that most people never would think that ordinary food that we consume could cause some health problems. Many people that have had long term mild to mild/moderate quinolone reactions may never know that they were once poisoned by an antibiotic.  

With the possible pandemic of swine flu there may be a temporary jump in the number of antibiotic prescriptions. Antibiotics are generally not really useful against a virus. They are meant to be used for bacterial infections. Those with weaken immune systems would be most susceptible to the flu. The elderly would be at greatest risk. I read that the biggest danger from this flu and other flus is not the actual flu itself but the secondary infections such as upper respiratory infection or pneumonia that come as a result of the flu. If this is actually the case that would mean more antibiotic prescriptions. Levaquin and Cipro are two of the most commonly prescribed antibiotics for difficult to treat bacterial infections. If the number of Levaquin and Cipro prescriptions spike because of swine flu you can probably expect a similar increase in the number of people that will be suffering from fluoroquinolone toxicity. As fluoroquinolone prescriptions grow so do the number of fluoroquinolone poisoned people.

 If swine flu becomes a more serious problem there will be many more seriously damaged fluoroquinolone victims. The older you are the harder it is to recover from this poisoning from what I have read.  ”Night of the Living quinolone dead” could be a new horror movie if the situation got out of control. A horror movie that would actually be factual instead of fiction.     

I can really identify with this person that provided her comment on this Levaquin blog today. I too had the suicide note written during my first year of the Levaquin poisoning. I actually had a couple written and kept them in easily found places in my house. For anyone reading this blog that has been poisoned by Levaquin, Cipro, Avelox ect. please try and hang in there. I want to offer some hope because many victims do get to a tolerable level of recovery over time so try and remain positive. Vent your anger in advocacy efforts by contacting the local and national media outlets. Local tv, radio ect. Too many people are seriously damaged like this last victim’s comments.   

….Six years ago while undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, my doctor presecibed Levaquin as a “preventive” for any infection. Preventive??? Within 24 hours I was in severe burning pain all over my neck, arms and legs. I did not associate this with the Levaquin at the time as I had also received chemo drugs. I took a round of 10 pills that first month, all the time getting worse with the pain. Next round of chemo I had been doing some research and knew it was not the chemo drugs but something else. I took 7 pills that round. By round 3, I was having hear palpitations and had to be hooked up to a heart monitor, could not walkmore than a few steps, was having excruciating pain in all my joints, and continued with the severe burning pain. Round 4 I took no Levaquin as by then I had figured out it was that drug causing my problems. I saw a neurologist who had never heard of this reaction before (he has now!). He did all sorts of tests and determined I had peripheral neuropathy
  and prescribed neurontin, which now has been switched to Lyrica. It helps somewhat with the burning pain. By now, he has told me it is irreversible. I was at the point of suicide during that first year, having the note and plan all figured out. My family is what I have been living for. The things that have helped me are: switching to organic meat, esp. chicken as most chickens are treated with this antibiotic, drinking and cooking only with non-floridated water. I have to be careful of drinking any fountain drinks at restaurants as they use local water mixed with the fizz. There are many days still of horrible pain in all my joints, head pressure so bad I want to die, burning pain all over even in my mouth and throat. Accupuncture did not help, meditation did not help, increased exercise did not help. I wish someone would have warned me of this horrible drug. I beat cancer, but I can’t beat the effects of this wicked drug. I truly will pray for all out there afflicted with  these side effects. Please hang in there. I almost didn’t!

Here is an interesting four minute video about a couple of citizens circumventing the FDA to get substances to help their situation. They are simply trying to stay alive. I feel the FDA protects the pharmaceutical industry and that there are many known substances that can give sick people a better quality of life.

I don’t promote using GHB, or prescription Xyrem since everyone reacts differently to medications and supplements. It may help some and it may not help others. GHB is illegal and should not be used due to its illegal status. I do take a prescription of Xyrem, which is a pharmaceutical version similiar to GHB. I thought this was an interesting little video. It seems there are more and more people that are becoming upset at the role of the FDA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCtkNqgB4Hk

I am writing after watching your video made in 2008.  I have an elderly mother that I believe has had reactions to levequin.  In January of 2008 she was hospitalized with CHF and they determeined that she had a UTI infection which they gave her Leviquin for.  In two days she had not slept or even rested so they gave her Ambian to help her to rest within an hour she was VERY defiant and said her lungs were burning and that they ( the nurses) were “killing” her.  At the time we were told that the Ambian caused the reaction.  She recovered but not before she landed in ICU and we were told that she would not make it.  Through the following year she kept getting recurrent infections.  To my knowledge she had not been given  Leviquin till this past February.  She was then given an IV drip, a 7 day oral run, and then hospitalized and given another 10 day run of the medication.  After taking the oral run she started talking incessantly for 5 days without resting, drinking or sleeping and litterally talked for 5 days.  Then she yelled for another 3.  I wont go any further in boring you with her symptoms but I am very curious if you have heard of any other symptoms like these especially in the elderly.  The symptoms she has had are simlar to those of Alzheimers or dimentia EXCEPT for the fact that they sypmtoms were VERY VERY sudden.  Whereas, with either of the earlier mentioned diseases they are VERY gradual.  Thank you for your time.

Here is a good one minute video. Rep. Henry Waxman speaking about the FDA and preemption. This speech was prior to the Supreme court ruling on Preemption. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRQoclwjTsY&feature=related