Doctors have issued a warning against the dangers of black market weight loss drugs, as a mum tragically died after being injected with a 'skinny jab' for £20.
Karen McGonigal was just 53 when she died earlier this year, after she was illegally injected with a substance claimed to be a GLP-1 medication, her family have said.
The mum, from Salford, Manchester, sought help from her GP when she decided to lose weight to 'get her confidence back' following a painful break-up, her daughter Abbie told ITV News.
'Desperate' to lose weight, she visited her GP to see if she would qualify for weight loss medication on the NHS; however, she fell short of the strict guidelines for prescriptions.
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Instead, on a friend's recommendation, Karen turned to a local salon, where a beautician was allegedly selling jabs for just £20 each.
Abbie had reached out to the beautician via text, which she shared with ITV, where she offered to give Karen the injection on the same day.
Her youngest daughter, Ffion, accompanied her mother to the salon, where she said the beautician had been in the middle of doing a client's nails when she took Karen into a backroom and injected her with a syringe.
"No preparation, no cleaning, nothing. She'd give it to my mum, my mum would pay her, and she'd be out in three minutes." Ffion said.
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She attended the salon several times to receive the injection, and four days after her last injection, Karen became ill, experiencing sudden stomach pains which made it difficult to breathe.
After seeing her mother's face turn 'purple', Ffion called an ambulance, adding: "She got blue-lighted to the hospital. By the time I saw her again, she wasn’t awake."
After spending two days in intensive care, her daughters were told there was nothing doctors could do to save her, and her life support was turned off.
Family and friends said their goodbyes to Karen, as Abbie said: "We were around her, kissing and hugging her. We were singing. All her friends were there... They all got to say their last goodbyes."
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Karen’s family was told that she hadn’t been injected with tirzepatide, as initially believed, but she had been injected with semaglutide, which requires a different dosage.
The family are waiting for more results to confirm Karen's cause of death. According to ITV, one person has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and another person on suspicion of supply of a controlled substance.
Karen's heartbroken daughters told the publication that authorities should be doing more to stop the illegal supply of unlicensed weight loss jabs, as Abbie said: "I think the people who are actually injecting people with this stuff - more needs to be done to them.
"There’s so many people doing it, there’s so many people selling it. These people are getting away with destroying people’s lives."
Toby Nicol, chief exec of CheqUp, a provider of medically supervised weight-loss programmes, has said it's 'sadly not surprising' to see these devastating stories emerge, as he warns of the recent surge in 'cowboy operators' following the Mounjaro price increase.
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"Go on any social media site and you can find cowboy operators in minutes – drug dealers, for all intents and purposes – taking advantage of confused patients who can no longer afford treatment but want to continue," he told LADbible.
“Unregulated and counterfeit products pose a serious risk as they may contain the wrong ingredients, the wrong doses, or no active medication at all. The consequences, as we’re now seeing, can be fatal.
“Our advice is clear - only ever source weight-loss medication from a regulated UK pharmacy and after a robust onboarding process. "And with illegal weight loss medication operations now being exposed in the UK, it’s more important than ever that people remain cautious.
"As with most things in life, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is."
Emma Rosemurgey