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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Sam Jones in Madrid

‘Like a bad dream’: Briton’s death in Spain heightens fears about painkiller Nolotil

Mark Brooks, 42, who died in hospital at Torrevieja in Alicante in October last year after being given metamizole for shoulder pain, pictured with daughter Aurora
Mark Brooks, 42, who died in hospital at Torrevieja in Alicante in October last year after being given metamizole for shoulder pain, pictured with daughter Aurora. Photograph: Handout

On an October evening last year, Summer Moses stood at her partner’s bedside in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Spain and agreed the life support systems could be switched off. Her partner, Mark Brooks, lay under a transparent cover surrounded by tubes and machines. His body was swollen, blistered and broken.

Moses was in a state of shock. Just six days earlier, Brooks had been enjoying a game of golf in eastern Spain in bright sunshine near his home. He sought treatment the next day for shoulder pain, and was given a painkiller injection of the drug metamizole at a local clinic.

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