BRITISH expats have revealed how they almost died after being administered a “lethal” painkiller in Spain – as scores more come forward following the recent death of dad-of-one Mark Brooks.
Doreen Hughes, 78, was given Nolotil following knee replacement surgery in September 2022, despite nationwide guidance against giving the drug to patients from the UK.
Olive PressStephen Burke, 65, claims he had to relearn to walk after taking Nolotil[/caption]
Olive PressDoreen Hughes (left) was given a 50/50 chance of survival after being administered the ‘lethal’ painkiller[/caption]
Nolotil, a form of metamizole, is banned in the UK, US, Australia and more than 30 other countries due to its potentially severe side effects on people of northern European descent.
In some, it can cause a rapid depletion of white blood cells, making them exposed to deadly infections such as sepsis.
Doreen was given the drug after her knee surgery at a private hospital in Alberic, Valencia.
“I sat up in my hospital bed to eat my meal then I suddenly had a funny turn and just started shaking dramatically,” she recalled this week.
“My husband Clifford called for help and the doctors just looked at each other blankly then sent me to the ICU.”
Doreen was sent home with doctors blaming her reaction on “low potassium and iron” – and incredibly, she was prescribed Nolotil pills to manage her pain.
Within a day, she took another turn and was rushed back to the ICU in an ambulance.
She added: “I was in ICU for over a week with total organ failure, pulmonary embolism, sepsis and zero white blood count.
“This was followed by another couple of weeks in the hospital before being allowed home.
“It was very touch and go, Clifford was extremely upset and I was told I had a 50/50 chance of pulling through.
“Luckily I’m a tough old bird and I did, but I now know never to touch Nolotil again.”
Doreen said she was never given advice or a warning before being prescribed the medication.
In December 2018, Spain brought in nationwide guidance for health centres, hospitals and pharmacies across the country.
These stated that Nolotil must only be used by patients for short periods of time, and they should be monitored and have blood tests to detect any severe reaction.
The drug should also not be given to tourists and other people who would not have access to such controls and monitoring.
And it must be available by prescription only and on a case-by-case basis, with a patient’s medical history and risk factors taken into consideration.
However, despite the guidance, it seems multiple health centres across the country have continued to ignore them.
I sat up in my hospital bed to eat my meal then I suddenly had a funny turn and just started shaking dramatically.
Doreen Hughes
Mark Brooks, 42, was given a Nolotil injection at a health clinic on the Costa Blanca after injuring his shoulder while playing golf.
Hours later, the handyman and gardener was rushed to hospital, where doctors said he had a white blood cell count and was suffering from sepsis and organ failure. Four days later he was dead.
His partner Summer Moses, 38, who must now raise their four-year-old daughter, Aurora, alone, told the Observer: “The whole thing is a blur, like a bad dream.
“How could this have happened? No one should be dying after a shoulder pain from golf. It’s senseless.”
Campaigners have linked the drug to more than 40 deaths in Spain alone.
But the true scale of the scandal could still be exposed, with more and more families speaking about their experiences.
Another expat, Stephen Burke, 65, claimed he had to relearn how to walk as a result of taking Nolotil for back pain in July 2011.
The Brit, from Wallsend on Tyne, had only been married for five months when he was admitted to a private hospital in Denia, Alicante, with severe back pain caused by a hip infection.
The Javea-based expat was given Nolotil, and his condition quickly worsened.
He said: “I was in such incredible pain.
“The irony is, the more pain I was in, the more Nolotil they gave, the more blood cells were killed, the more infection there was, the more pain I had. It was compounding.”
Nick Obank – The SunNolotil is a form of metamizole and is banned in 40 countries, including the UK[/caption]
Olive PressStephen spent a week in intensive care, slipping in and out of ‘terrifying’ hallucinations[/caption]
Olive PressHe was ‘screaming all night in pain’[/caption]
As a result, Stephen, 52 at the time, spent a week in intensive care, slipping in and out of “terrifying” hallucinations.
Stephen’s family also began to notice “unsanitary practices” at the hospital including nurses “leaving used needles on beds dirty with blood”.
As a result, he resolved to leave the hospital, which has reportedly now been shut down.
No sooner had he stepped through his front door when he received an urgent call telling him to go “immediately” to Denia Hospital.
He arrived in “excruciating pain”, unable to stay still even for an X-ray.
Stephen, a former ski instructor, said: “They had to hold me down for a scan.
“My wife had to console me. I think the staff thought it was funny.
“But when I didn’t stop and I was screaming all night, it stopped being funny.”
The Brit’s immune system was depleted and he had contracted a spate of illnesses including sepsis and MRSA.
Medical staff quickly put him on morphine to control the pain and he slipped into a coma.
What is Nolotil?
NOLOTIL is the Spanish brand name for the drug metamizole.
It is used to relieve pain, reduce inflammation and treat a fever, and can be taken in pill form, intravenously, by intramuscular injection, or by rectal administration.
Metamizole is the most commonly prescribed painkiller in Germany, and it is widely used in Brazil and Spain.
However, it is banned in 40 countries, including the UK, US, Canada, Australia and France, due to its adverse side effects.
These include skin reactions, dizziness and blood pressure changes, and experts say it can also cause agranulocytosis – a reduction in white blood cell levels.
It also increases a patient’s risk of sepsis and organ failure, it is said.
Case reports in medical journals suggest certain populations, including those of northern European descent, may be more susceptible.
The Association of Drug Affected Patients (ADAF) identified 350 suspected cases of agranulocytosis between 1996 and 2023, including 170 Brits who either live in Spain or were on holiday.
But Spain’s medicine and health products agency, the AEMPS, insists the risk is low, and the benefits outweigh it.
Nolotil should only be available on prescription, but investigations have revealed it can be bought over the counter at pharmacies for less than four euros (£3.50) without one.
The newlywed’s wife was by his bedside every day, fearing she may become a widow.
During that time, he “momentarily died of pneumonia”, he alleges.
“I had lost all my white blood cells as a result of Nolotil and the doctors said my body just gave up, it was too tired to keep fighting,” he added.
Doctors managed to bring Stephen back, though by the time he awoke from his coma, he had lost the use of his arms and legs.
He spent a gruelling 10 days in intensive care and a further two months in hospital, recovering from his experience.
But it would still take the sports enthusiast over a month and some 1,000 euros (£850) of his own money to relearn how to walk with the help of a physiotherapist.
‘Lucky escape’
Incredibly, once he had recovered, his insurance refused to pay out, leaving him to fund his own stay in the private hospital, as well as expensive physiotherapy.
He claims they deemed his illness to be “not serious nor an emergency” and stated that because his illness had occurred in the first six months of the policy, he was not entitled to make a claim.
He said: “They said it wasn’t life threatening, but how much more life threatening can you get?”
They reportedly then cancelled his policy with no reimbursement.
Although he said the care at Denia State Hospital was “excellent”, he says they “never informed me that there was a chance Nolotil was responsible”.
He said: “They were concerned with keeping me alive rather than looking for the cause.”
Unfortunately, this left Stephen in the dark about the cause of his illness and he took the lethal drug yet again in 2016.
Thankfully, Stephen’s wife “realised there was a problem and the hospital, now better informed about Nolotil, dealt with the issue correctly”.
Stephen promptly underwent blood tests, which identified Nolotil as the perpetrator, leading doctors to connect Stephen’s current illness and his brush with death in 2011.
He said: “I didn’t know the first time around but when it happened again we realised.”
A lucky escape, this time he was only in hospital for two weeks with no major issues.
Even still, the once keen skier is still suffering from nerve damage in his feet as a result of the incidents.
A spokesman for Boehringer Ingelheim, the manufacturer that makes Nolotil, said in a statement: “We take patient safety and public health seriously and closely cooperate with the regulators on product safety-related topics.
“We are of the opinion that current approved prescribing information adequately addresses current knowledge about identified risks.”
Olive PressNolotil should only be available on prescription, but there are claims it is freely given out[/caption]
Olive PressStephen awoke from a coma and had lost the use of his arms and legs[/caption]
Olive PressThe sports enthusiast had to ‘relearn how to walk’[/caption]
Olive PressStephen spent 10 days in intensive care and a further two months in hospital[/caption]
‘I was in such incredible pain,’ Stephen saidOlive Press