Mother, 50, suffered five-month allergic reaction to common medication

When Victoria Abotorabi was prescribed a course of antibiotics for an ear infection, she had no idea that soon, the niggling pain in the side of her head would be the least of her worries. 

In June 2024, the mother-of-two, 50, was given a three-week course of ciprofloxacin by her GP—but five months later she had visited A&E seven times and spent £6,000 trying to find out why she was suffering with headaches, palpitations and numbness. 

The recruitment consultant, from Leeds, said:  ‘I don’t normally get headaches at all and it was really bad.

‘I went to the doctors and they told me to go to A&E. They were concerned and gave me a CT scan but didn’t check what medication I was on.

‘The headaches lasted for about five months, it was awful. I couldn’t even lie my head onto the pillow.

‘I went on lots of different medications but nothing was working. I had body twitches, muscle spasms, my digestive system shut off, I lost so much weight, I had facial nerve pain.

‘Nobody knew what was going on, I kept going back to A&E. I thought I was dying, I felt so incredibly poorly.

‘I wrote letters to my kids saying goodbye because I thought the doctors had missed something really bad.

‘I thought I was either going to die or I wanted to die. I just couldn’t deal with the pain anymore. It was absolutely unbearable.

‘I was in so much pain I spent days just crying, it was horrific. Medical professionals just kept saying I was anxious and stressed.’

Ms Abotorabi had no idea that she was infact suffering an adverse reaction to  ciprofloxacin, which belongs to a group of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones that are often used to treat a variety of bacterial infections.

She started experiencing adverse affects just five days into her prescription when she began waking up in the night with heart palpitations and numbness in her hands.

According to the NHS, in very rare cases fluoroquinolone antibiotics can cause disabling, long-lasting or permanent side effects affecting the joints, muscles and nervous system.

After being told the symptoms were linked to her infection, Ms Abotorabi continued with the antibiotics before developing an intense headache a week later.

In addition, the recruitment consultant began experiencing a number of other health issues including muscle spasms, twitches, confusion, neck pain, rashes and facial nerve pain.

Ms Abotorabi’s headache lasted for five months, leading the mum to visit A&E seven times out of fear doctors had missed a serious medical issue.

It wasn’t until her seventh trip to hospital in November that she was asked about medication she’d taken over the last six few months, and later diagnosed as having suffered an adverse reaction to fluoroquinolones.

Shocked, Ms Abotorabi is now raising awareness of the side effects of the commonly-prescribed drug that left her believing she was dying.

She said: ‘I just had a normal life before this. I was really active and went to the gym multiple times a week.

‘I didn’t have any health problems luckily. Then I started getting this ear pain that was waking me up, it was a dull pain in my left ear.

‘I thought it was just an ear infection. The doctor gave me some antibiotics and steroids and told me to take them for three weeks.

‘He said ‘take them and this will knock it out and you won’t have any more problems’.

‘I just always thought antibiotics were well-used and safe.’

It wasn’t until her seventh visit to A&E that she was asked about her recent medication, and discovered she’d suffered an adverse reaction to ciprofloxacin.

After spending £6,000 on private appointments, Ms Abotorabi was given a diagnosis and is now urging others to only take this antibiotic as a last resort.

She said: ‘There is no cure for this, it’s just whether your body can recover.

‘If I’d have known, I’d have never taken it. It shouldn’t be given out as a first-line antibiotic. It should be that they’ve tried everything else.

‘I’m still left in chronic pain. I just had my complete faith in the health industry and doctors but I feel let down.

‘It’s a horrible drug, it’s not worth the risk of taking. It’s not worth the long-term damage.

‘Looking back to where I was to where I am now, I’ve come a long way. Life is hard still but better than when it was.’