Mom Overdosed on Weight Loss Drug She Got on Instagram, Recalls 'Throwing Up Blood': 'Thought I Was Going to Die'

• Leigh-Anne Lagden received free weight loss injections from an Instagram brand in exchange for social media promotion
• The 26-year-old ended up in the hospital vomiting blood
• The mum-of-one is now sending out a warning, encouraging others to lose weight naturally rather than taking the ‘easy way out’

A 26-year-old mother nearly died after taking five times the recommended dose of a weight loss drug she bought from an Instagram brand.

In June, Leigh-Anne Lagden from Newcastle, England followed the brand on Instagram. Soon after, the company asked if they would send her free weight loss injections if she would promote the brand on social media.

“The injections didn’t cost me a penny,” she told Kennedy News and Media via The Daily Mail. “The site sent them to me and I was supposed to be on them for a month because I was supposed to promote their brand. It came in a liquid solution with a needle so you had to make it yourself.”

Lagden, a content creator and mother of one, said she immediately started experiencing side effects after taking the brand’s “recommended” dose of 0.5ml.

“I vomited for four days without stopping right after I took the injection. My vomit was black and I was tied to the bed,” she recalled. She contacted the company and said she was told that nausea is a common side effect when you first start taking the drug.

Several people hospitalized after taking suspected fake Ozempic in Austria

Leigh-Anne Lagden.

Kennedy News and Media

The side effects got so bad that Lagden went to the emergency room two days later.

“They sent an ambulance for me. I didn’t eat or drink and I couldn’t keep everything down,” she explained. “When I told them my patient was black, they told me it was blood. I was just throwing up blood. I thought I was going to die and I felt like I was going to die.”

Lagden said that for a week, the only thing she could do to keep herself stiff was picking ice. She was sent home the next day, but returned to the hospital when her heart rate skyrocketed.

“They asked me if I was on drugs because my heart was beating so fast,” she told the newspaper. “My blood came back and they said it was out of range and my liver was extremely abnormal. I think the reason I did so badly is because I took five days in one shot. At the hospital they told me that I overdosed, but that’s what [the Instagram page]he told me to take it.”

Lagden said she contacted the brand and claims they had no qualms about her health problems on the drug. She also contacted other content creators who promoted injections and learned that she should have taken 0.1 ml instead of 0.5.

“They made me take five times the amount,” she claimed, noting that the injections were allegedly a GLP-1 drug, like Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound and Mounjar.

Many people are overdosing on Ozempic alternatives with DIY injections, the FDA warns

Leigh-Anne Lagden in hospital.

Kennedy News and Media

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Meta — the parent company of Facebook and Instagram — said it does not allow the sale of pharmaceutical drugs on social media platforms and urges users to report anything they come across.

“I would never take them again. I learned my lesson and now I’m losing weight the normal way by going to the gym and working out,” Lagden said, warning others to do the same and not take the “easy way out”.

She also gave advice to those who feel the same way about her weight.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” she said. “I thought I was big and needed to get those injections, but in reality I was healthy, of normal size. Do not take these weight loss injections from strangers on the internet. Do your research first.”

Getty

The PEOPLE Puzzler has arrived! How fast can you solve it? Play now!

Although Lagden wasn’t sure what type of weight-loss injections she was taking, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the disease is on the rise. In August, the agency warned that many people are overdosing on alternatives to Ozempic and Wegovy because of self-administered semaglutide doses.

Ozempic is an FDA-approved prescription drug for people with type 2 diabetes, while Wegovy is FDA-approved for people with chronic obesity. The drugs – taken once a week by injection into the thigh, abdomen or arm – are the brand names for semaglutide, which works in the brain to make you feel full. However, the drugs have gained popularity over the past year as many use them to lose weight when it is not medically necessary.

Because of this increase in demand, the drugs were previously affected by drug shortages across the country. But before the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk was able to increase production, many counterfeit and complex versions of the injections appeared on the market, causing health consequences for those who turned to them.

In some cases, patients reportedly received five to 20 times the intended dose of semaglutide. The agency notes that it does not review, test or approve these compounded drugs for safety.

“FDA encourages patients to speak with their healthcare provider or compounder about how to measure and administer the intended dose of compounded semaglutide,” officials wrote.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education