"Levaquin Ruined My Life"

Washington, DCHis name is John Fratti and he walks with a cane. He can barely make it down the stairs. Lest you think that John is a stooped, elderly gentleman, John Fratti is a young man. There's a video of him floating around somewhere of an extremely athletic man shooting hoops with friends. No more. John Fratti's life, he says, has been forever changed due to Levaquin medicine.

These days Fratti maintains a blog dubbed 'Poisoned by Levaquin,' and he frequently turns up in media interviews as someone who knows what can happen when a drug's side effects get the better of you. In a recent television appearance in a segment on prescription drugs produced by Ivanhoe News and posted on YouTube, Fratti comes across as a confident and articulate advocate of the need for education on just what can happen when a person pops a legal, prescribed pill into his mouth.

He hasn't been able to work for more than three years, the former pharmaceutical rep says.

However, the professionally produced news piece is in sharp contrast to the grainy video that featured a slightly younger Fratti, sitting in a cluttered room, in obvious pain, pleading with whomever was watching to stay away from Levaquin.

Levaquin (fluroquinolone) is part of a class of drugs known as quinolones. The robust antibiotic is prescribed to battle bacterial infections. However, a host of adverse side effects—not the least of which is the risk of tendon rupture—resulted in the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandating a black-box warning for Levaquin last July.

Public Citizen, the consumer advocacy group, had been calling for a black box for more than two years and even threatened legal action against the FDA in an effort to persuade the federal drug regulator to mandate the industry's strongest warning for Levaquin. According to Public Citizen, the manufacturer of Levaquin—Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical—knew about tendon rupture and various other side effects dating back to 1997.

That's no surprise to John Fratti, who sits in his cluttered room wearing a blue t-shirt and with labored breathing describes his life over the past two years after taking Levaquin for an infection.

Two years during which the young man has been on disability.

"I'm trying to warn everybody that I can, never ever to take this antibiotic," he says.

"Since that time two years ago I've been in intense pain: neuropathy, nerve pain, tendon damage—I've had central nervous system damage to my brain." Insomnia left him with the capacity for only about two hours of sleep per night for the better part of a year, he says.

He also describes brutal palpitations, anxiety and panic attacks, tremors, bouncy vision, and the inability to walk straight. "My balance is all screwed up," he says, before summarizing that he has been affected by about 40 different symptoms thanks to Levaquin.

"Please never, ever take this antibiotic."

A much more composed John Fratti is featured in the Ivanhoe News video, but his message is no less compelling.

"It's been a hellish three-and-a-half years," he says, sitting in what appears to be a newsroom. "I haven't been able to work in over three years…I didn't know if I was going to make it.

"I was simply given a legal pill called Levaquin an now it's ruined my life."

As the viewer is treated to an image of Fratti running and jumping in a pickup game of hoops, the voice-over by the Ivanhoe News reporter describes Fratti as going from the basketball court to hardly being able to walk.

We see him wincing as he cautiously, and slowly, navigates stairs. We see him able to manage only slow, deliberate steps with a cane as he walks along a sidewalk.

The contrast of the two images is startling.

He says he was diagnosed with "Levaquin-induced brain damage, damage to my nerves and damage to my tendons.

"We live here in America and we should be afforded the right to know that a drug can cause irreversible damage."

Levaquin has had a black box warning since July 2008, but it came too late for John Fratti. As he sits in his cluttered room wearing his blue t-shirt and a white placard with the word 'Levaquin' written in block letters resting in his lap, Fratti looks into the camera with a pained expression on his face.

"When I picked up the prescription at the pharmacy it had no information about irreversible side affects. That was all hidden."

He pauses to catch his breath on the video that so far has garnered 7,016 views on YouTube. Not the millions of hits earned by Susan Boyle in recent weeks, but every bit as compelling.

"I don't know what else to say, except that the reason I'm making this video is I never want anybody else to go through the absolute, un-ending horror that I have gone through…"

Finally, this is from John's blog. The entry is dated May 22nd of last year.

"I loved my job. Got to drive a company car, buy lunches for doctors' offices, give out drug samples and boxes of bagels, brownies and other treats to doctors' offices. Got to go to Cancun a few times, the Bahamas, Las Vegas and other neat places for training seminars.

"Even paid some doctors a few thousand dollars to give a short presentation to other doctors on the drug I was selling. Paid doctors to do preceptorships which entitled me to spend a day with the doctor. Basically it was a way to give the doctors some money with the idea of it being an educational tool for me. Yes there was pressure on the job. We had to make our sales quota but I still loved it. Can't believe my life has been ruined by the own industry that I worked for and a drug that I used to sell.

"Maybe it is karma for all the lives I unknowingly ruined by selling Levaquin when I was a drug rep. I had no idea that Levaquin could cause irreversible pain and neurological damage. I am not sure I am going to survive this poisoning. Today was an awful day. I am in so much pain it is unbelievable. I tried to help my parents and water some of their lawn. I was so fatigued and in so much pain afterwards. Levaquin poisoning. Can't escape it. My only joy is when I am unconscious…"