A fit and healthy British father suffered devastating side effects from a common painkiller before ultimately killing himself, his widow has revealed, with the same drug linked to dozens of deaths in Spain.
Mark Froome was given Nolotil ahead of knee surgery in 2022, but quickly deteriorated and had to be rushed to A&E after the drug reduced his white blood cell count to zero, leaving him in an old man changed.
He had lived in Benidorm for six years with his wife Amanda, 66, who says her ‘happy’ husband ‘never returned to the person he was’ after the drug’s side effects caused him ‘major mental and physical health problems’.
Metamizole, commonly sold under the brand name Nolotil, is banned in Britain and more than 40 countries around the world, but is popular with doctors in Spain – many of whom operate with the phrase ‘Nolotil as pain’.
Amanda is the latest Briton to come forward with a horror story about the drug, dubbed the ‘deadly painkiller’ by campaigners who say it has caused the deaths of almost 40 Britons in Spain and left others with horrific injuries.
Mark Froome was given Nolotil ahead of knee surgery in 2022 but deteriorated rapidly and had to be rushed to A&E
Mark had been living in Benidorm with his wife Amanda for six years when his ordeal began
The mother-of-one has told MailOnline about her family’s ordeal, which began when her husband was prescribed Nolotil, the brand name for metamizole, in April 2022.
Mark, who cared full-time for Amanda’s 92-year-old mother, was awaiting knee surgery and had been prescribed Nolotil as a stronger painkiller. “He had been waiting for the procedure for a long time,” Amanda said.
He was given a 10-day dose, despite recommendations that the drug should only be taken for seven days in a row as a ‘short-term treatment’.
He then went to the pharmacy to get a refill and was given more Nolotil tablets without a prescription, despite the drug requiring one.
Amanda said doctors and pharmacists never told them about the risks associated with Nolotil, a cheap and effective painkiller and a favorite for medics in Spain, despite fears of possible adverse side effects.
Two days after starting taking it, Mark developed a sore throat, joking with his wife that she had given him a cold as he took her to the airport to return to Britain for a few days.
She called him every day for a check-up, but discovered that although she felt better after 24 hours, “he felt much worse.” He refused to go to the doctors, she said, “as men often do,” insisting it was just a virus.
“He then called me the day before I was due to fly back from Britain and I could barely hear him talking,” she said.
Mark’s neighbor went to check on him and discovered that he had become seriously ill, and decided to rush him to the hospital.
‘The doctor took one look and saw that his throat was almost completely closed. He was coughing up frothy stuff and could barely breathe,” Amanda said.
Mark was admitted to the emergency department and Amanda was told to catch an emergency flight home that day as doctors feared he had sepsis.
He was soon diagnosed with agranulacytosis, which depleted his white blood cells and left him vulnerable to infection.
He remained in the hospital for more than a week while he tried to get his white blood cell count back up, which took much longer than doctors had hoped.
“I just saw him deteriorate before my eyes.” Amanda said. ‘He used to be physically fit and active and loved his workouts.
‘It was terrible to see him become so weak and so tearful; normally he wasn’t one to cry easily.
“Then to think this is a drug that’s supposed to help you, and it puts you in this condition.
‘The only reason he survived was because he was so physically fit. If he had used Nolotil longer, he probably wouldn’t have done that.’
Nolotil is banned in more than 40 countries, including Britain, Australia, Canada and the US
After six days, Mark finally started to increase his white blood cell count, but it was far from clear. He was sent home for rest and recovery.
‘He couldn’t walk out of the hospital, I had to wheel him out in a wheelchair. He had been healthy and proud of his physique, but overnight he became an old man. Amanda reflected on the ordeal.
‘His recovery did not go as the doctors expected, they thought his white blood cells would return to normal. But he never returned to normal.
‘He subsequently suffered major mental and physical health problems. He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to protect me even if I just walked the dog, he feared he wouldn’t be able to help me if something went wrong. It was a PTSD-like reaction.”
Although Mark has suffered from depression in the past, Amanda said he had “been on an even keel for years.”
‘We moved to Spain for a less stressful lifestyle, so he could work less. Before this happened, he had been so happy.
‘He quickly lost confidence in the medical system, in doctors and in medicine. He even refused to take paracetamol.
‘He never really got over it. He got fit again, but his muscles wouldn’t recover, and that made him even more depressed.
‘Life just became very, very difficult for him. He said things like “you’d be better off without me”.
‘We moved to Spain for a less stressful lifestyle, so he could work less. He had been so happy before this happened,” Amanda said
It also took its toll on Amanda: ‘He seemed to lose interest in meeting friends, I asked him to come out and he told me to just go alone. He lost his zest for life.
‘One day it all became too much. He was overwhelmed by a sense of worthlessness he had never had before.”
Mark took his own life in October last year.
“He survived the Nolotil experience, but did not survive the long-term effects,” said his heartbroken wife.
‘I can’t say it was Nolotil who caused his death, but its consequences did not make him someone I knew, not the person I married. He never went back to the person he was.
“We trust the doctors, the experts, but a drug that is supposed to help you could actually kill you.”
Now Amanda is focusing on raising awareness about Nolotil and the risks it poses to Britons living and holidaying in Spain.
There are concerns that British people are more susceptible to horrific side effects caused by the drug, with a 2016 study finding the risk for Britons is ’80 to 120 times higher’ than for Spaniards.
The research, which focused on the five health departments in Spain with the most British residents and tourists, has not been published.
Experts say not enough evidence has been gathered to support this and more work needs to be done.
A 2009 study of 13 patients, five of whom were British, at the Costa del Sol Hospital in Marbella found that the rare reaction was “more common in (the) British population and its use should be avoided.”
“I’m afraid someone else will take this and the same thing will happen to them,” Amanda said.
‘Friends of mine were recently offered the medicine. Even at our local doctors, where they know what happened to Mark, a locum tried to give it to my friend.
‘There are many people who do not know the dangers of this drug, especially tourists who go to Spain and get pain and are prescribed it.
Despite the drug being banned in Britain, Amanda said she knows people who have been sent home from Spain with a pack of Nolotil.
‘People not only suffer terrible consequences, they can also die immediately. People have died who used it for even less time than Mark.”
“It’s very scary, it’s probably being prescribed to people at the moment.”
Less than four months after Mark’s tragic death, Amanda said she is trying to rebuild her life in Britain.
‘It has completely changed my life. I don’t live in Spain anymore because I couldn’t afford it.
She had to move back to East Sussex after her husband’s death and had to quit her part-time job to care for her mother full-time without him.
Mark died at the age of 63. He took care of Amanda’s 92-year-old mother. She worked part-time and now had to move back to Spain from Alicante.
‘Now I’m just trying to build a new life for myself.
She remembers her husband, who had two children and helped raise her daughter from the age of five, “as a much-loved stepfather and father to his two children.”
A spokesperson for Boehringer Ingelheim, the manufacturer that makes Nolotil, said in a statement: ‘We take patient safety and public health seriously and work closely with regulators on product safety-related issues.
‘We believe that the current approved prescribing information adequately reflects current knowledge of identified risks.’
If you want to talk to someone, call Samaritans on 116 123 or visit samaritans.org