Fluoroquinolone antibiotics left me barely able to walk

Since 2015, Prof Millar has treated about a thousand patients from across the UK and hundreds of Scots, including John, who was prescribed the drugs in hospital to treat a serious infection following a vasectomy.

After he left hospital, John went to his GP with symptoms including joint pain.

His doctor told him joint pain could happen with this kind of antibiotic and it would pass when he stopped taking them.

However, John says they are still having a drastic impact on his life.

“I wake up basically every night with spasms across my tendons and my knees to the point where physically my brain will not allow me to straighten my legs,” he says.

“I’ve got to use my other leg to straighten my leg – it’s that level of pain.”

Two years after taking the pills, an MRI showed that he had a ruptured bicep tendon which required surgery to reattach it.

“I just got up one morning with a very painful shoulder,” he said.

“I’d done nothing, I hadn’t moved, I hadn’t lifted anything, I hadn’t been working, I hadn’t been exercising.

“For three months I had to sit up in bed and sleep sitting up. So these drugs have caused big, big issues in my life.”