Featured Image Credit: Kennedy News and Media
Topics: Ozempic, Social Media, Health
Joshua Nair
A woman endured a health nightmare after using a weight loss jab that she got from a pharmacy online.
Aimee Chapman was looking to cut some weight by using the infamous GLP-1-class injections, which have become increasingly popular among celebrities in particular.
However, with A-listers including Jeremy Clarkson and Amy Schumer sharing their horror experiences with the likes of Ozempic, it's fair to say that people may start being more cautious with the medication, which is designed to treat type two diabetes.
Aimee is one of the latest individuals to share her journey with GLP-1-class jabs, admitting that she almost lost her liver and lost her hair as a result.
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Aimee, 34, ordered the injections in March 2024 after spotting a post about them on social media, hoping it would help her lose weight.
She also believed that doctors would take her 'more seriously' if she was slimmer when it came to her fibromyalgia diagnosis.
The exact cause of it currently unknown, but the chronic condition causes pain throughout the body, resulting in interrupted sleep, cognitive difficulties and fatigue.
While GLP-1 medication was originally made to treat diabetes, many have been using it to suppress their appetites and lose weight.
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Aimee forked out about £200 for jabs over the course of a month, which were legal and regulated, as she ordered them from an online pharmacy.
She recalled: "I'd never even thought about it until I saw a post on social media saying you can just buy [weight-loss jabs].
"I noticed that as my weight changed, I was taken less seriously by doctors. My thinking was if I could weigh less, I would at least get taken a bit more seriously.
"It wasn't about getting thinner or looking better for me. That hadn't even crossed my mind."
Within four months, she had lost four stone (25kg), having dropped from 14 stone (89kg) to 10 stone (63.5kg).
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But by June, she started to feel unwell, as Aimee explained she realised she didn't 'have a lot of energy', eating a couple of times a week, and being sick constantly before throwing up blood.
"I was sick between 50 and 60 times," she said, adding that she couldn't take more than a couple of steps at a time.
After collapsing a few times, she then decided to get it checked out by doctors at Southampton General Hospital's ICU.
It was revealed that a hole formed in her oesophagus after throwing up more than 60 times.
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With her liver showing signs of failure, a transplant was considered, before she was discharged 11 days later.
The hole in Aimee's oesophagus brought on chest pains, as it was leaking air around her heart and lungs.
"They were trying all sorts of things to get my liver levels back to normal. It was failing," she explained.
"They had said it was down to the weight-loss jab but they didn't know why or how to fix it. There was so little out there medical-wise, doctors didn't know how to fix it."
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Recalling that she was 'terrified', she was told by a nurse that she could never take the jabs again, even if she were to develop type two diabetes.
She believes that the doctors didn't know how severe the case was, adding: "I was told the hole in the oesophagus can kill people and I may have needed a new liver. They said I could've died."
However, her hair started to come out in clumps, which is a sign of vitamin deficiency.
"It kept happening and the handfuls kept getting bigger. I would be so sad," she admitted.
Aimee developed a vitamin B-12 deficiency by September 2024, and though she cut her hair off in what she said described as a 'traumatic' experience, she attributes the deficiency to the result of injections.
"I'm not going to tell people what they can and can't take but I do believe more research needs to be done into these jabs," Aimee explained, saying that she regrets 'ever taking them', and advised others to see a doctor first.