"We take our medicines on faith. We assume our doctors are well-informed, our drug companies scrupulous, our FDA diligent—and our medications safe. All too often we're wrong." Just how wrong concerning the fluoroquinolone class is documented within this White Paper.  David Fuller took a fluoroquinolone for a kidney stone—and ended up in the emergency room. Some drug reactions go away in a few hours or days. David's did not. They have become a lifelong disability.  A search on the Internet provided the detailed horror stories of millions of patients who suffered the very same severe adverse drug reactions to the fluoroquinolone class since the introduction of Nalidixic Acid back in the mid sixties...Adverse reactions that have destroyed lives and in a number of cases prematurely ended them.

Researching his own medical history he was able to trace back to his first exposure to a fluoroquinolone drug back in the mid eighties.  Prescribed to treat pneumonia.  Barely into his thirties at that time his physician believes that he suffered a mild heart attack.  Soon to be followed by the classic rupture of the Achilles tendon.  Undiagnosed and untreated at that time.  This was the beginning of the end of his life as he knew it to be. 

For the next twenty years after each new exposure to these drugs significant medical problems soon followed.  In the early nineties after being treated with a fluoroquinolone for a mild head cold he found that he had lost all upper body strength as well as significant tendonitis in the elbows and shoulders.  Soon to be followed by a trip to the E.R. for severe chest pains.  The diagnosis being another impending heart attack, atrophied heart valve as well as an abnormal EKG.  Severe vision problems soon developed as well.  Prior to his exposure to the fluoroquinolones David had excellent 20/20 vision.  Today he wears tri-focals with prisms due to irreversible diplopia (double vision).

In the late nineties after receiving Ciprofloxacin together with a medro dose pack to treat a case of mild infection of the epididymis he soon developed a kidney stone as well as severe digestion problems.  Together with severe tendonitis of the knees and ankles.  In the fall of 2000 his urologist failed to diagnosis the kidney stone and attempted to treat David for first, a severe urinary tract infection and secondly for prostatitis.  Unfortunately David had neither disease state, only the undiagnosed kidney stone.  After being of Floxin, Cipro and finally Levaquin for over two months David passed the stone.  But his body had been utterly destroyed by these drugs.  He now suffers from permanent double vision, chronic tendonitis, damage to his heart, liver kidneys and pancreas.  Short term memory is for the most part non-existent.  His hearing has been affected as well due to tinnitus, a constant and never ending ringing in the ears.  His skin is covered in numerous scars as the smallest cut refuses to heal properly.  Once an avid recreational weight lifter and athletic individual he can now barely even open a jar of peanut butter.  The simple pleasures in life have now been denied him.  Walking around the mall is a painful ordeal.  It has been well over twenty years and all hope for improvement has been abandonded.  His doctors have no cure or treatment plan.  His injuries are permanent and he shall spend the rest of his life waiting for these drugs to finish the job and kill him.

While researching the cause of his numerous medical problems on the Internet he was both shocked and appalled to find that he was not alone.  In fact his name was "Legions".  The number of patients who had suffered these same adverse reactions were far too numerous for him to even begin to count.  Forum after forum was found on the Internet where patients such as he gather to discuss these drugs and the horrendous damage they are capable of causing to the unsuspecting patient.  With his participation on one such forum he soon gained a reputation as an outspoken, rude and times even crude, advocate for educating both the patient as well as the treating physician.  The end result being the formation of the Fluoroquinolone Toxicity Research Foundation.  An Internet community of patients and physicians alike who have suffered such non abating injury as the direct result of the fluoroquinolone class. 

The collecting of the documentation of these adverse reactions soon filled over four, two drawer filing cabinets.  Receiving reports and documents from all over the World concerning these reactions David had soon accumulated well over 4000 medical journal entries, case reports, newspaper articles, etc.  What you see on the FQresearch site is end result of his quest.  David also found that he had been lied to by the drug companies as well as his government.  Such adverse reactions, he found, were not "rare" but quite common place.  He also found that the scripting abuse concerning this class was running rampant with almost 10% of the world's entire population having been exposed to these drugs.  Well over half a billion prescriptions for a drug of last resort.  Drugs with the potential of crippling a patient for life.

                                          David continues to be an outspoken critic of not only these drugs but those responsible for their use.  As both the Director of the           
                                          Fluoroquinolone Toxicity Research Foundation as well as the Webmaster of FQresearch.org he continues to receive heart breaking reports
                                          from all over the world on a daily basis.  Though in very poor health he continues to fight the good fight.  He has written to the FDA, the
                                          CDC, his representatives in Congress, hundreds if not thousands of newspapers and even the President of the United States to no avail. 
                                          At a tremendous personal expense David had wrote a letter to each and every Attorney General in the United States begging them to take some                                  action to protect the patients.  The response received was quite depressing.  Few if any Attorney Generals showed the slightest interest.
                                          However the Attorney General of the State of Illinois was the lone exception.  Lisa Madigan, the Attorney General of the State of Illinois had
                                          filed a petition with the FDA seeking Black Box Warnings as well as Dear Doctor Letters concerning these adverse reactions based upon
                                          David's research and the activism of patients residing in Illinois.  Public Citizen also filed a petition is support of LIsa Madigan. 
 

David is currently writing a book about his experiences which he hopes will prevent this never ending tragedy.  He is also working on a citizen's petition to be filed with the FDA seeking the total and complete ban on the use of these drugs within the pediatric population, together with the same Black Box Warnings and Dear Doctor Letters currently being sought by the Attorney General of the State of Illinois as well as Dr. Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen.  But he is quite doubtful that his book will ever be published or the FDA responding favorably to his petition.  Never the less when these are completed, the book as well as the petition will be available on the FQresearch site.  In the meantime he hopes that the White Paper being presented on the FQresearch site will prove to be of some value to both the patient as well as the treating physician.  He hopes that you would take a moment and read what he has to say.  It could very well save you or someone you love from a life of never ending pain and misery.  The White Paper is readily available as a Word for Windows document.  Simply Click Here to read his "Case Against the Drug Companies"