Despite FDA warnings, doctors still prescribing antibiotics that leaves some patients incapacitated

ATLANTA — A woman says a popular antibiotic left her with a crippling condition.

The medication is still being prescribed even though the FDA first warned about it 16 years ago.

Now, she wants everyone to know about a condition called “floxing.”

In April 2021 a doctor prescribed Talia Smith cipro for a urinary tract infection.

She said she questioned whether she really needed an antibiotic that strong.

“It was like a bomb went off in my body, literally,” Smith said. “(The doctor) actually told me, no, there’s nothing you need to be aware of. "

Three days later, Smith said she ended up in the emergency room.

She described the pain in her body like an electrical shock. She couldn’t eat. She couldn’t walk.

“The doctor said, were you taking Cipro?” Smith said. “There’s a black box warning label. It only took five months for me to end up on hospice.”

Black box is the strongest warning the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has.

The label is restricted to medications that can lead to injury or death.

According to the FDA, cipro, Levaquin and similar antibiotics should be reserved for serious issues like anthrax exposure or severe infection.

For uncomplicated UTIs, the FDA advises prescribers to “reserve CIPRO X-R for use in patients who have no alternative treatment options.”

Channel 2 Action News analyzed federal prescribing data. More than 14 million people nationwide were prescribed these antibiotics in 2022.

“For many patients, it’s an easy antibiotic to use. And as a result, it’s overused,” Dr. Shira Doron, chief infection control officer for Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, said.

One of her roles is to monitor and educate prescribers.

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She said fluoroquinolones can cause tendon ruptures, central nervous system and heart damage, and there is no way to know in advance if someone might have an adverse reaction.

“Now all of those things are relatively rare, but with the massive amounts of fluoroquinolones being used in this country, we tend to see a lot of those complications over time, particularly as use of this antibiotic has increased,” Doron said.

The FDA warnings have curbed prescribing rates since 2016, but there hasn’t been a significant drop since then.

In 2023, there were roughly 3,000 adverse reactions from Cipro alone. And that’s just what’s reported to the FDA.

“I want to raise the alarm about this. I don’t know that it’s common for people to have tendon ruptures, but this does happen to people every day,” said Rachel Brummert.

She said she was floxxed by Levaquin 17 years ago. She’s now a patient safety advocate working for the FDA

Brummert wants to make it mandatory for prescribers to report when patients have negative side effects.

“There needs to be more communication between doctors and the FDA and patients. The general population doesn’t know that the FDA has seven black box warnings on fluoroquinolone antibiotics and that that is a big deal,” Brummert said.

Smith has now become an advocate, sharing her story online as she fights to get insurance to pay for floxing treatments.

“We lose everything, you know? I lost my independence. I lost my job,” Smith said. “This level of chronic illness … It’s not living at all. You’re just surviving day to day.”

There are about eight name-brand fluoroquinolones and dozens of generic options.

If the name of the drug ends with “floxacin,” it’s a fluoroquinolone and subject to that black box warning.

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