A DIRECTIVE BANNING NOLOTIL/ METAMIZOL IN COSTA BLANCA HAS NOW BEEN ISSUED BY DENIA REGIONAL HEALTH AUTHORITY
The instruction has gone out to all hospitals and doctor surgeries and they must now cease administering and prescribing Metamizol (under all its brand names, including Nolotil) to all Anglo Saxons and Scandinavians.
Readers of this article may recall, back in December of last year, a post on the Javea Connect group by medical translator, Cristina Garcia del Campo, asking people of Anglo-Saxon origin, who had ever suffered ill effects, or even fatal consequences after taking the prescribed painkiller, to come forward and tell of their experiences.
The reason for Cristina’s plea, especially to the ex-pat community in the area, was that she had seen several of her British clients suffer from Sepsis over the past year and one of them had just died. At that point, she began to question if there was a link to these cases. She spent some time going through her clients’ reports and found that they had all been taking Nolotil. After many hours of research on Nolotil, subsequently establishing via the media and other sources, that Nolotil had been banned in The UK, Sweden, USA, and more than 30 other countries including Japan, Australia and other Northern European countries, Cristina decided to alert the Health Authorities in Spain, as she felt that the effects of this painkiller on Anglo Saxons seemed to be unknown to the medical profession there and someone had to raise awareness. It must be said that Nolotil is a very effective and well prescribed painkiller in Spain with very few cases of adverse reactions among the Spanish.
The plea to people who had suffered was spread far and wide,
firstly within the Javea Connect groups and then more widely via other Ex-Pat Facebook groups and after almost 4 months work, accumulating over 100 case histories, and many hours of meetings and phone calls with various members of the medical profession in the Valencia region, Cristina finally heard the news of her break-through yesterday!
After a meeting with the Head of Preventive Medicine from Denia Hospital on Friday 13th April ( lucky for some after all!) , Cristina was told that the directive ( as stated above) has now been issued and will be released to the mainstream press from Monday.
Cristina tells us that “Denia Regional Health Authority have decided to do this in response to the now ongoing national investigation into the effects of Metamizol on people of Anglo Saxon and Scandinavian origin”.
I met Cristina today for the first time after speaking with her, mainly via Facebook and quite often in the early hours of the morning, when she was still awake, analysing case histories and emailing all manner of medical professionals regarding Nolotil. It was very clear that she was not going to let this go until she had answers and, ultimately results!
Despite many sleepless nights and worries that all the work she had put in would fall on deaf ears, she had the bit between her teeth and she knew that lives could be saved if her findings were proven to be correct. She had seen a client die and several more suffering pain and anguish and she knew that she could not rest until she had explored all the medical avenues open to her that would listen and take her seriously.
“The research has already shown a causal link between the use of Nolotil/Metamizol and adverse effects often leading to death in some cases.This study has grown to now encompass the whole of Spain, including all 17 community regions and it is the largest drug research ever carried out in the country.”
She was not without the odd remark, that she would be wasting her time but luckily no heed was taken of the sceptics and doubters and it was not too long before the Commissioner, Juan Puig, the Head of Preventive Medicine, Antonio Valdivia and the Head of Pharmacy, Jaime Poquet in Denia Hospital became very interested in what she had to say and the process, which led to yesterday’s decision, had started.
I have nothing but admiration for this lovely, charming woman, who lives here in Javea with her family and husband, Ashley, who she met in England when on a short visit 33 years ago. Her planned 3 week holiday turned into an 18 year stay in the UK, where she trained as a teacher before returning to Spain with her family in 2003. Since then she has worked as a medical and legal translator as well as teaching Spanish to expats. Little did she know this time last year, just how much more she was about to do for the community she had been working with.
If you have not previously been alerted to the dangers discussed here, you can read more by following the link to one of the previous articles here. The more case histories that can be presented, the better it will be and so if you have ever suffered ill effects from Nolotil/Metamizol, please click this link and you will be able to download a questionnaire that can be returned by email to Cristina.
“I wanted Denia to be the first one to ban it because that’s where I do most of my work as a translator and they have listened intently to me when I raised the initial alarm bells.
Once this is published, I will be working on the rest of Spain with regards to getting the drug banned nationally for those who cannot be allowed to take it safely. Once everyone knows ( doctors, GPs, pharmacists and dentists) that it is not administered in the Costa Blanca anymore, they will cease to prescribe it everywhere.”
So, on behalf Javea Connect and, indeed, the Ex-Pat community as a whole, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Cristina for all she has done (and will be continuing to do) totally in her own free time, to ensure that no-one else suffers illness, pain or even death, from Nolotil or any one of the other painkillers containing Metamizol.
Cristina has been invited as a guest on Bay Radio and will be at the studio at 4pm on Friday 20th April talking to Kal and Rosy about being “The Medical Miss Marples” of Javea 🙂
Congratulations to you Cristina!!
Your Dream Has Come True!!
