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Talia Smith was a “healthy” stepmom of two when she says she became paralyzed after being prescribed the antibiotic ciprofloxacin for a urinary tract infection
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“I started having sharp shooting pains like come out of my head, which I’ve never experienced anything like that before,” the Massachusetts woman tells PEOPLE
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In a statement to PEOPLE, the FDA says it “continues to believe that for some serious bacterial infections, the benefits of systemic fluoroquinolones — including the use of higher doses, when appropriate — outweigh the risks”
A Massachusetts woman says she was left disabled and in “constant pain” after being prescribed a common antibiotic to treat a urinary tract infection.
“I was a very healthy person,” Talia Smith, a 45-year-old stepmom of two, tells PEOPLE. She worked out, had a full-time job working at a healthcare company and was also her husband Timothy’s primary caretaker after the Marine veteran became paralyzed following an injury in Brazil in 2011.
Everything changed in April 2021 when Smith developed a UTI, which was surprising because she hadn’t often had them.
“I called my doctor, and I said, ‘I think I have a UTI. Can I please have a urinalysis and a culture?’ ” she recalls. “So I got that done, and I was prescribed ciprofloxacin.”
Talia Smith
Talia Smith and her family.
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Before Smith took the antibiotic, she says she asked her doctor at Beth Israel Lahey Health Primary Care in Sharon if there was anything she needed to know since she didn’t often take medications and antibiotics made her nervous.
In response, Smith claims her doctor of 10 years said there was nothing she needed to be aware of and that the medication was frequently prescribed to treat UTIs.
“That’s all I needed to hear,” she adds. “I was supposed to take one pill every 12 hours. That’s what I did.”
But after taking her third pill, Smith says she “started having a lot of pain in my whole body, especially my legs.”
Timothy, 46, initially tried to ease his wife’s fears by telling her that her pain may have been a result of the cleaning she did around the house that day, but Smith tells PEOPLE that her discomfort continued to worsen — and led to tingling and numbness in her extremities.
Still, she brushed it off. “I said, ‘You know what, I’m gonna go to bed, I’m gonna wake up, and it’ll be better, and it’ll all be gone,’ ” she recalls thinking.
But when she woke up the next morning, Smith couldn’t walk. After Smith went to the emergency room at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital – Needham, she says the first thing the doctor asked her was: “ ‘Are you taking Cipro?’ “
Little to Smith’s knowledge, she had fluoroquinolone toxicity. The Food and Drug Administration first added a black box warning for fluoroquinolones — of which Cipro is a type — “for the increased risk of tendinitis and tendon rupture” in 2008.
In 2016, the agency issued an “enhanced warning” about the “disabling and potentially permanent side effects of the tendons, muscles, joints, nerves, and central nervous system that can occur together in the same patient” who took the class of antibiotics.
Due to the side effects, the FDA advised “restricting fluoroquinolone antibiotic use,” and in the years since, the agency has added warnings about the drug’s additional risks.
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Smith tells PEOPLE that the ER doctor did mention that the drug could cause tendon issues and ruptures, but also told her not to worry.
“He said, ‘Calm down, relax, don’t worry, go home, rest. Don’t do anything for the next three or four days. Take ibuprofen for the pain,’ ” she claims.
But the pain continued to get worse, likening it to electrical shocks in her body.
When reached for comment, Beth Israel Lahey Health, which has a network of fourteen hospitals, including Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital – Needham, told PEOPLE in a statement that they were unable to comment on particular cases “due to patient privacy laws.”
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About two months later, Smith says she developed mast cell activation syndrome (MACS), a condition that “causes intense episodes of swelling, shortness of breath, hives, diarrhea, vomiting and other symptoms,” according to the Cleveland Clinic.
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Since then, Smith had problems swallowing due to the toxicity — affecting her ability to gain weight — and has had reactions to food, supplements and medications due to her MCAS.
She went on hospice in September 2021 — “A priest came to my house to read me my last rites,” she recalls — but by May 2022, she transitioned to receiving palliative care, which is aimed towards improving the quality of life for people living with serious illnesses by providing relief from symptoms and stress.
Today, Smith says she’s in “constant pain all the time” and needs care from aides 24/7 because she is bed-bound and only gets up to go to doctor’s appointments in a wheelchair.
“I still have almost all my symptoms. Although they have lessened in degree,” she says. “And in recent months, I’ve had a setback where I am just not feeling well again, I’m stiffening up.” (Her father has created a GoFundMe fundraiser to help with her vast medical expenses.)
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An FDA spokesperson tells PEOPLE that “patient safety is paramount at the FDA and we continuously review available sources of data and new information on potential risks of drugs, including fluoroquinolones, and take action as needed to protect the American public.”
“The agency continues to believe that for some serious bacterial infections, the benefits of systemic fluoroquinolones — including the use of higher doses, when appropriate — outweigh the risks,” the spokesperson says.
But Dr. Annie Wong-Beringer, associate dean for research affairs and professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Southern California tells PEOPLE that Cipro’s risk is “greater than the benefit because we have other treatment options for mild infections like UTI.”
Wong-Beringer believes that the drug should no longer be prescribed, given its “serious side effects.”
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Now, looking back, Smith eerily recalls Timothy mentioning how their lives would be difficult if something happened to her while she had people help her take care of him during the COVID-19 pandemic as she worked from home.
“He would say, ‘If you ever get sick, we’re screwed,’ ” she says. “I’d say, ‘Why would I get sick? I’m so healthy.’ “
“Then all of a sudden, I can’t do anything for myself,” Smith adds. “I can’t take care of him. Both of us need 24/7 care. Both of us have a house that neither one of us can take care of on our own. It’s totally destroyed us.”
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Since 2023, Smith has been on a mission to get her story out using TikTok and, most recently, a website to warn others about fluoroquinolone toxicity.
“My husband was like, ‘You need to tell your story because there are so many people like you,’ ” she says, adding that “it took me a long time because I said, ‘I’m either going to go all in or not do it.’ ”
She clarifies that in raising awareness, she’s not trying to say that people should never take fluoroquinolones.
“The message is, this is what you need to know about fluoroquinolone so you can make an informed healthcare decision for yourself. Because I didn’t have that luxury,” she says. “If I had seen a video like mine before I took Cipro… I would’ve said, ‘Hell no, not for UTI. I’m not going to risk it.’ “
Read the original article on People
