A 27-year-old mother has shared her horror after almost dying from injections advertised to make her lose weight.
She has revealed that she is 'lucky to be alive' after taking a 'skinny jab' that she bought after seeing adverts for it on Instagram.
Shannon Flannery, based in Medway in Kent, attempted to lose some weight prior to a family wedding, and stumbled upon semaglutide injections that were being advertised all over her feed.
Apparently, the jabs were being marketed as the 'best kept secret' of many celebrities.
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Semaglutide is the chemical present in Ozempic and Wegovy.
The mum weighed 82.6kg prior to her purchase, which was £120 for ten-weeks worth of jabs in February this year.
DIY kits were delivered to her front door, with instructions on how to mix the substances together herself - not a good sign.
She put the first injection directly into her stomach, and the mother-of-two felt nauseous straight away, though symptoms faded fairly quickly.
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Shannon then vomited and retched for four days straight after taking the second jab the following week, and rushed to hospital after spotting blood in her urine.
There, she was informed by medical professionals that one more jab could have proved 'fatal'.
She is now urging people to steer clear of buying weight loss drugs online, stating: "Don't take the easy way out. It's a lesson learnt.
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"You don't know what's in these products. I've never felt so poorly in my life. I feel really, really lucky."
The substance Semaglutide has been proved to help users lose up to 15.3kg after 68 weeks on average, basically by tricking the brain that you're full, altering your appetite and stopping you from overeating.
But due to its growing demand, fake or counterfeit versions of the drug have been put on the market, with health officials seizing over 600 fake Ozempic pens across the UK since the start of 2023.
Shannon recalled: "At the time, I thought everybody seems to be using it.
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"I followed all the instructions and injected my first jab on February 14th into my tummy,
"For the rest of the day, I felt okay. I felt a bit sick, I had no appetite that day, I didn't eat.
"But seven days later I took the second jab and then that evening I felt very sick."
She revealed that she was ill and vomiting all night, eventually retching.
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It turns out that her mother urged her to go to A&E, as Shannon was apprehensive, even after seeing blood in her urine.
At Medway Maritime Hospital, it was found that her heart rate was high and her blood pressure was low.
She was treated on the ward for two days, and later said: "I was so poorly in A&E, I was laid across the chairs. I was given the strongest anti-sickness tablets but they didn't work.
"One of the doctors said to my mum that because of how sick I was and how low my observations were, another injection could've been fatal."
But the medics couldn't figure out what was in the injection exactly but it was theorised that it could have been insulin.
The mum was unable to hold food in her stomach for a week, dropping even more weight.
She reported the incident to Kent Police after the seller refused a refund, as they claimed they had 'hundreds of happy customers with no side effects'.
Shannon stated: "I won't be doing anything like that again. I blamed myself afterwards for even buying it. I thought it must be okay because so many people were using it.
"I feel lucky to be alive."
A Kent Police spokesperson said following the incident: "On March 1, 2024 Kent Police received a report of an alleged fraud relating to the online sale of a weight loss product.
"As the address of the seller was not known, the incident was referred to Action Fraud for further enquiries.
"An officer also spoke to the woman who reported the incident to check on her welfare and advise her of the investigation process."
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