DEAD Fluroquinolones

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    DEAD

    Dead !!!

    1 levaquin

    Summary

    Paul Levine Rest in PeaceState or Country of residence: ColoradoSex: Male

    Age: 57

    Quinolone taken: Levaquin

    Reason for the Quinolone: Prostatitis

    Was a safer antibiotic tried first? : No

    How long was the Quinolone used for? : 1 Pill

    The following was originally posted on

    Paul's Story

    Paul's story is particularly a hard one for me to put up. I talked with Paul on the phone severaltimes - and I could hear the desperation in his voice. Paul suffered many of the same symptoms I

    have so I can relate to the severe mental torture he was enduring. Paul went night after night

    without sleep - and I can tell you that alone is enough to drive a person off the edge.

    Fluoroquinolones can shut down sleep for years. The victim becomes a zombie living in a halfworld of reality. This is where Paul was spending his life. In mental agony (anxiety, panic),sensitive to foods and it a great deal of pain all over his body. To make matters worse - Paul was

    all alone. Paul was a loner by nature - but as I found out after his death - he was a very talented

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    musician who wrote music for children. I came to find out Paul was a soft, gentle man wholoved and lived a simple life until he was prescribed ONE LEVAQUIN for a prostate infection.

    The incredible agony he put up with all alone eventually drove Paul to suicide. With Paul's storyI'm going to put up the posts he made on the Yahoo Forum, Emails he sent to me and the

    thoughts of other's. -Bob

    Twelve years ago, while living in Boulder, Colorado, my wife, Lucille, took our four-year-old

    son, Brenden to a music fair at a park in the foothills. They heard some beautiful songs written,composed and sung by a small, gentle man named Paul Levine. They both fell in love with themusic and the musician. They bought his tape and practically wore it out during the next few

    weeks. Lucille brought him home for dinner, as she does so often (and so well) and we met andfelt a love between us that seemed to have existed forever. We became the best of friends and,

    even though 2 years later we moved cross-country to the Florida swamp, we stayed in close

    contact over the phone. Sometimes Brenden and he would talk for hours. He came twice toMelrose FL. to visit us at our lake house.

    Last May he took a Fluoroquinolone antibiotic that he had a severe reaction to. (see ) Symptomsgot progressively worse and he became very sensitive to many foods and other environmental

    factors. The pains increased and he wasn't able to sleep. His mental, emotional and physical

    condition worsened and in the last few months he was calling on his close friends to stay on thephone with him through his toughest times, sometimes for hours during the middle of the night.

    He couldn't bear the pain any longer and felt that there was no one on Earth that could help him.At midday on Wednesday, March 3, 2004, he took his own life.

    Paul had so much wisdom and insight that he shared with so many of us. Lots of people

    considered him their mentor. He also had wonderful creative capacities in music andphotography. If you go tohis website at

    You can listen to any of his songs on Real Player. If you don't have it, a link is supplied to make

    it easy to obtain it without any spyware or adware. Friends in Creation (song #7) is the song he

    sang at our wedding renewal, and so is one of my favorites. His creative photography is alsoavailable on this site, and I have more if you're interested.

    Please listen to a little of his music or read the lyrics of one of his songs and say a prayer for hispassage and for those of his friends who are processing this great loss.

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    Je vindt dit leuk 19 april 2011

    Name: KristenParent's Names: Gary and Ruth

    State or Country of residence: Ind.

    Sex: FemaleAge: 23

    Quinolone taken: AveloxReason for the Quinolone: Persistent cold

    How long was the Quinolone used for? : DaysWas the Quinolone listed as the cause of death?: Yes (Prime contributing factor)

    Kristen's Story

    The following story is By Chris Adams and Alison Young Knight Ridder Newspapers

    Washington Bureau 4 November 2003

    Gary and Ruth Pettijohn, of Batesville, Ind., hold a photo of their daughter, Kristen, who died

    after being prescribed a powerful antibiotic called Avelox. RANDY AMICK, KRTThe drug Kristen Pettijohn took was called Avelox. It's part of a family of antibiotics called

    fluoroquinolones.

    Those powerful but risky drugs are intended for patients who are fighting particular bacterial

    bugs. But they're widely prescribed off-label for less serious illnesses, sometimes even to treatviruses, which can't be killed by antibiotics.

    A study this year funded by the National Institutes of Health reviewed 100 emergency roomprescriptions for fluoroquinolones and found that only 19 were written for appropriate

    conditions and only one was given in the correct dose and for the proper duration.

    The FDA long has been aware of the possibility that Avelox could be misused.

    Just before it approved Avelox in 1999, a member of the agency's expert review panelRobert

    Danner, a critical care expert at the NIHoffered a warning: "This is exactly the kind of place

    that you get into trouble. I am absolutely convinced that the drug will be used differentlyonce it's marketed frequently."

    Avelox was approved, however, and marketed hard by Bayer Corp. In 1999 and 2001, the FDA

    admonished company officials for encouraging unapproved uses.

    This past May, Pettijohn, a gregarious 23-year-old nursing student from Batesville, Ind., whorecently had gotten engaged, picked up the persistent cold that had been running through her

    family. "Her version was a little worse than ours," said her father, Gary Pettijohn. "I would sayit was moderate at best."

    Early in the morning of May 15, Pettijohn's mother took her to an emergency room. Going there,

    Pettijohn told her mom, would be quicker than waiting for an appointment with their familyphysician.

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    Forty-two minutes later, Pettijohn was on her way to the drugstore. The doctor had diagnosed

    her with acute bronchitis and prescribed Avelox. The potent antibiotic's label says it's approvedfor cases of chronic, or long-term, bronchitis, and only after blood tests have been taken to

    identify the bacteria causing the problem. Her medical records show no blood work was done.

    That was a Thursday. By Sunday, Pettijohn was nauseated and suffering abdominal pain. Her

    mother packed a plastic bag with the remaining Avelox pills and took her to the hospital.

    Over the next five days, Pettijohn was incoherent. She had a burning rash and her skin began

    peeling off. She slipped into a coma, resting on an air bed, totally wrapped as though she were asevere burn patient.

    By Wednesday, a doctor approached Gary and Ruth Pettijohn.

    "Our problem just got twice as difficult," he said. "She has two life-threatening conditions

    simultaneously."

    Pettijohn's liver was in full failure, and she was experiencing a form of Stevens-Johnson

    syndrome, a rare and extreme drug reaction mentioned on the Avelox label.

    She had a liver transplant on Friday. The doctors reported that her old liver had turned to mushand fallen apart in their hands.

    Soon after the operation, Pettijohn had a heart attack, then another. Her death certificate citedAvelox as the prime contributing factor in her death.

    The hospital had no comment about her death. Bayer had no comment beyond saying the death"was promptly and accurately reported to the FDA," and that it thinks its antibiotic should be

    prescribed only for approved conditions

    ................................................................................................