He wanted to become a sports coach but his life turned upside down. In October 2023, Clément Mortureux, 26, was prescribed levofloxacin. This quinolone antibiotic can cause side effects, sometimes serious and disabling. The young man tells us about his “ordeal”.
“For me, it’s a medical error.” In October 2023, Clément Mortureux, resident of Ahuy (Côte-d’Or), consulted a doctor for pelvic pain. “I did several urine tests but no germs were found.”. The practitioner decides to prescribe an antibiotic, levofloxacin. “I started having pain in my tendons and a rash. My skin was all red.” After four days, he decided to stop the treatment but at that time, Clément had no idea that his life had already changed.
This medication is from the quinolone or fluoroquinolone family. A class of antibiotics that may be prescribed for bacterial infections. If used incorrectly, they could cause potentially serious and disabling side effects. In France, dozens of complaints were received by the public health unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office and an investigation was even opened for “unintentional injuries and deception”.
After stopping treatment, the redness disappears but the pain in the tendons persists. A great sportsman, Clément takes up bodybuilding and works. He is a coach during the week and goes back and forth to Lyon on the weekend for his diploma.
In February, he began to have memory problems and several abnormal symptoms appeared: neuropathy, dizziness, shortness of breath at the slightest effort, sensitivity to light, hyperacusis. “I also had lymph nodes in my neck. I could no longer stand the heat or the cold, it was horrible”specifies Clément.
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He consults several doctors. One of them finally prescribed a treatment based on amoxicillin (Editor’s note: another antibiotic) and cortisone: “I’m having a new rash. My pain is getting worse, it’s shooting up my elbows. It’s like I’m receiving electric shocks throughout my entire body”
I took blood tests but found nothing. The doctor tells me he doesn’t understand
Clément Mortureux, 26 years old
Since then, he has tried to keep his head above water but the days go by and look the same: “I can’t play sports anymore, I’m dead inside.” He lost ten kilos, muscle wasting due to lack of appetite, and his hair began to fall out.
“I hurt absolutely everywhere. I get up from a chair, my head is dizzy. I get out of breath as soon as I carry something. Tinnitus has appeared, I have clicking in my ears,” breathes Clément who struggles to remember all the ailments that torture him on a daily basis.
I am 26 years old, all my professional projects are dead, I had to go and work abroad, I can no longer. I was a sports coach, I no longer have clients.
Clément Mortureux, 26 years old
Faced with the lack of response from the doctors, Clément began to search the Internet. He comes across several articles and forums where other people tell and share their experiences with taking antibiotics. “We don’t tell ourselves that it can ruin lives.”
He ended up finding a Facebook group of the association for help and information on the harmful effects of fluoroquinolones. Every day, he talks with other victims including Philippe Corville, the president of this association, also affected by side effects: “These are hypertoxic drugs which transform people who have a minor health problem into people potentially disabled for life. It is very serious. These antibiotics have been severely restricted for 5 years”, specifies Philippe Corville who also chose to accompany Clément in his quest for the truth.
We are always in a story of profit risk
Dr Romain Thevenoud, president of the Order of Physicians of Côte-d’Or
So why are these medications prescribed? The France 3 Bourgone editorial team contacted Dr Romain Thévenoux of the Order of Physicians of Côte-d’Or. “Fluoroquinolone antibiotics are essential in the arsenal of all general practitioners today,” he specifies while explaining that he does not know the details of Clément’s medical file. “It is a fairly classic antibiotic which is part of the recommendations and which is used for multiple infectious pathologies or even urinary pathologies.”
Last March, the public health unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation for “unintentional injuries and deception”. Around twenty complaints from users of fluoroquinolones have been received after experiencing “abnormal adverse effects” following the consumption of these antibiotics. Information confirmed by the Paris prosecutor’s office to our colleagues at Franceinfo.
Clément refuses for the moment to file a complaint even if he admits to having already contacted a lawyer. In the meantime, the young man currently has no treatment to improve his daily life. “My life stopped overnight. A rotten life because I was prescribed shit (sic). And then no one wants to take care of us behind, nor look into our case.”
After being off work for a long time, Clément returned to his job as a salesman in a gym in Dijon. “It’s difficult because I’m still very tired at the end of the day. I have a lot of muscle loss in my legs.” Above all, he hopes that justice advances: “it is professional misconduct not to want to question these antibiotics. Even today, they are prescribed like hotcakes.”