Victoria visted A&E seven times without knowing what had caused her pain
Neil Shaw Assistant Editor
11:55, 25 Nov 2025
Victoria had an adverse reaction that lasted for months (Kennedy News and Media)
A mum suffering from an agonising five-month headache feared she was dying and wrote goodbye letters to her kids – but it was a reaction to a common antibiotic. Victoria Abotorabi was prescribed a course of antibiotics to treat a suspected ear infection in June 2024.
The 50-year-old began taking a three-week course of ciprofloxacin, which belongs to a group of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones that are often used to treat a variety of bacterial infections. But five days into her prescription, the mum-of-two 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, Victoria continued with the antibiotics before developing an intense headache a week later.
Victoria with her daughters (Kennedy News and Media)
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. Victoria’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.
The pain became so intense that Victoria feared she would die, even penning heartfelt goodbye letters to her two children. It wasn’t until Victoria’s 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.
Victoria is now raising awareness of the side effects of the commonly-prescribed drug that left her believing she was dying. Victoria, who lives in Leeds, 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.”
Victoria had nerve pain and muscle spasms (Kennedy News and Media)
However, five days after first beginning her ciprofloxacin prescription, Victoria began experiencing heart palpitations, numbness and an intense pressure in her head. Victoria said doctors told her that her symptoms were linked to the infection and advised to continue taking the medication.
But the mum’s medical issues failed to improve, leaving her in daily pain and even writing goodbye letters to her children due to her declining health.
Victoria 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.
Victoria finally got her diagnosis (Kennedy News and Media)
“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.”
It wasn’t until Victoria’s 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, Victoria was given a diagnosis and is now urging others to only take this antibiotic as a last resort.
Victoria 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.”
