"It started back in 2000, when I had major surgery [an osteotomy] to do a correction on my left leg," Chuck says. "They put wires through my knee and external bolts from my tibia that attached to 2 external halos. These had to stay on for 5 or 6 months. I had to sleep and do everything with those in. At the site of these wires and bolts [known as pin sites] I was getting periodic infections. I had to clean the sites twice a day and I was told I might have infections. Because of this, I was put on Levaquin at least once and possibly more than that. I'm still waiting for one pharmacy to come back with that information.
Shortly thereafter, I had the external devices [the halos] removed and went into rehabilitation."
One day, Chuck was in his driveway playing basketball. He says that he jumped up for a jump shot and when he came down, he wound up lying on the ground.
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"I never knew anything about what these drugs [Cipro and Levaquin] may cause until last night, when I saw a commercial about the dangers of them and the black box warning [recently ordered by the FDA]. I did research on the Internet and got some information about the drug. I'm kind of stunned and puzzled by the whole thing.
"It took 9 months to recover. I'm self-employed [selling and installing window coverings]. I had to go out and work on crutches. I had to do estimates in and out of homes on crutches. I had periodic help from my son, but I had to do most of it on my own.
"People need to be very thorough about what drugs they are taking and the potential harm and danger in them."