A 45-year-old mother almost died after injecting herself with a weight-loss drug pen that she had bought on the internet. Michelle Sword had merely wanted to lose a few pounds, but she almost lost her life due to a fake skinny jab.
If her 13-year-old daughter, Cadie, hadn’t raised the alarm, the mum wouldn’t be here anymore. Michelle told how doctors said she was very close to dying and described her recovery a little short of miraculous.
Shortly after lockdown, the mum used a weight-loss jab for the first time, which left her feeling good and more energetic. This positive experience prompted her to go back and do it again.
The 45-year-old saw the skinny jabs plastered all over social media sites and decided to order another one. The jab looked “exactly the same” as the previous one she used but this time the dose on the pen did not stop after one click.
Michelle explained you need to twist a dial on the device, and put it in your stomach to inject it and it clicks. Speaking on ITV’s show Good Morning Britain, she said: “However, this wasn’t stopping and I felt like it has gone on a little bit long so I thought I’ll stop.
“As I injected myself, I thought that hasn’t actually gone down too much. I’ll give myself more a bit later on. Thank god, I didn’t.”
Within 15 to 20 minutes, she started feeling really disoriented, dizzy and confused as her daughter, Cadie, just returned home. Michelle said: “She wanted me to do some mac and cheese because she’s done it at school the day before. I was just unsure of what I was doing and I felt really disoriented. It got a lot worse after that.”
She started to feel unwell and wanted to go lie down but “thankfully” she didn’t. Her daughter started talking to her and she stopped responding. “When she came back from the kitchen, I was just lying there, eyes open, really not responding, really muzzily,” the mum said.
Fortunately, the 13-year-old girl phoned Michelle’s best friend who got there within minutes and got her an ambulance. “I was so lucky they were with me within 12 minutes and that’s when I’ve lost full consciousness,” the 45-year-old added.
The mum nearly lost her life as it turned out the jab was filled with pure insulin, and that she had taken as much as 18 units (diabetics commonly take between two and four).
Unlike this fake jab filled with insulin, the real thing is supposed to use semaglutide — sold under the brand names Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus — which works by mimicking the action of the hormone released from the gut after a meal which feeds back messages to your brain, helping you feel full and stopping you from overeating.
Ambulance staff worked on the mum for an hour before deciding she needed to go to hospital.
Despite the ordeal that followed, there was no long-lasting damage, other than a legacy of embarrassment, the mum confessed. She told MailOnline: “I should have known better. I teach my kids to do better, and I didn’t follow the same rules myself. I’ve had to apologise to both of them for putting them through what I did.”
The mum has now urged others not to take the “gamble”. She added: “You just don’t know what you’re going to get and it’s not worth risking your life over feeling good. The people around you love you just the way you are and you need to remember that and just don’t take risks with your life.”
Alongside Michelle, Dr Hilary Jones also appeared on the ITV programme, urging warning over counterfeit jabs. He said: “There are hordes of unlicensed sellers, selling this stuff now on the internet. They are taking advantage of predominantly women but men too.
“They are selling these products that are fake. You don’t know what you’re buying, they could be potentially lethal. They are sold in devices or pens which are not reliable. So you’re playing with death by using these products. People selling them are criminals and fraudsters.
“While the true medicine works for people who are seriously overweight or have type 2 diabetes, they shouldn’t be for everybody. They shouldn’t be used in a trivial way. They should be prescribed by a healthcare professional.”
