A Welsh mother-of-three who “played Russian roulette” by buying £80 slimming injections on Facebook has been hospitalised after the shots caused her to “vomit blood”.
Jodi Jones, 37, turned to the “magic injection” last month in the hope of going from a size 14 to a size 10.
She contacted a beautician through social media and asked her to buy her four injections that she would give her weekly over the course of a month.
Ms Jones paid £20 for each injection and said she was “asked no questions” when she picked them up at a beauty salon in Merseyside, Liverpool.
But after taking the second dose on July 25, she felt “unbearable pain” and began vomiting foam, bile and blood, she said.
Jodi Jones turned to the “magic injection” when she was struggling to lose weight due to degenerative discs in her spinal cord that prevented her from exercising.
The 37-year-old contacted a beautician recommended to her by a friend via Facebook and ordered four injections over the course of a month.
Unable to get out of bed, Ms. Jones’ teenage children took turns sitting with her and caring for her through the night.
Two days later, she couldn’t stop vomiting, prompting her 18-year-old daughter to call an ambulance.
Paramedics took her to Wrexham Maelor Hospital in north Wales, where doctors prescribed her anti-nausea medication and gave her urgently needed intravenous fluids.
Now Ms Jones, who says she was “selfish” by using the vaccine, is urging people not to touch them without speaking to health professionals.
She said: “It was horrible. I’d never been so sick in my life and I’d had sepsis before.”
‘This was made worse by the constant vomiting.
‘I was in excruciating pain. It was absolute agony.
‘I took the first one and I felt really bad, I had hot flashes and I felt really bad.
‘That calmed down within a day or two. That week I couldn’t digest certain foods, but I thought, “Great, it’s working.”
‘When I got the second injection I woke up in the night vomiting and couldn’t stop.
‘I was vomiting all day Friday. I have teenage children, so they would bring me water and with every sip I would vomit foam, bile and blood.
‘My son Harry looked after me all night until 2am, but he fell asleep. I had to call my eldest daughter because I couldn’t scream or get up.
“At that point I was completely unconscious, I was very dehydrated. She called an ambulance and they came and I went to the hospital on Saturday morning.”
She paid £20 for each injection and says she was “asked no questions” when she picked them up at a beauty salon in Liverpool, Merseyside.
While it is unknown what was in the “fake” weight-loss injection given to Ms. Jones, some fake injections may not contain semaglutide at all or others may contain other medications, such as insulin.
Doctors were unsure exactly what was in the weight-loss vaccine but Ms Jones, who is not working due to health problems, said they were “convinced” it was counterfeit Ozempic because they had seen patients with similar reactions before.
The weekly injection, which contains the drug semaglutide, is offered on the NHS to help patients with type 2 diabetes control their blood sugar levels.
Also known by the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy, it triggers weight loss, earning it praise as a “miracle” slimming injection.
The drugs mimic GLP-1, a hormone produced naturally in the body that helps slow the passage of food through the stomach, making people feel less hungry.
As a result, people don’t eat as much and lose weight.
In June, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that three counterfeit batches had entered the market, falsely claiming to have been manufactured by Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of Ozempic.
The UN agency detected the fake injectable pens, which could be “potentially fatal”, in Brazil and the United Kingdom last October, and in the United States in December.
While it is unknown what was in the “fake” weight-loss injection given to Ms. Jones, it is known that some fake injections contain insulin, a diabetes medication.
According to the WHO, this can have “unpredictable” effects, such as blood sugar levels dropping to dangerously low levels, which can cause nausea and fainting.
The mother-of-three, from Eryrys, Denbighshire, Wales, says after her second dose on July 25 she felt “excruciating pain” and began vomiting foam, bile and blood.
Ms Jones revealed that her severe back problems prevent her from exercising and she sought the vaccine because she felt “compromised” by the fat on her stomach.
Mrs Jones said: “I had to have full blood tests and everything because they were worried about my kidneys. My blood sugar level dropped dangerously low.
‘I had to tell them the truth about what I had taken, I felt very ashamed.
“I felt terrible. I put all this pressure on the NHS just because of this. I felt so ashamed.
‘I ended up receiving four bags of fluid (administered via IV drip) over the weekend.
“Doctors said I’m not the first and probably not the last. At one point they were considering giving me the (vaccine) test because of how sick I was.
“I was finally discharged on Sunday night and was able to eat a yogurt. I didn’t eat properly until Wednesday night.”
Ms Jones revealed that her severe back problems prevent her from exercising and she sought the vaccine because she felt “compromised” about her stomach.
She said: ‘I was self-conscious. Because I can’t do much physically and I’m slower because of the pain, my weight is concentrated in the abdominal area.
‘I was just trying to get that weight off my shoulders, but I can’t seem to get rid of it.
“I tried personal trainers and they almost killed me. I physically can’t do it. I tried diets and it doesn’t seem to work.
“Since all this started I have lost almost 2 kilos, probably because I was very sick. Before I got sick I had only lost a few kilos.
‘Giving myself a “magic injection” that makes me lose weight without doing anything seemed like a good idea, but it was too good to be true.’
Wegovy and Ozempic work by stimulating the body to produce a hormone called GLP-1 that is naturally released from the intestines after meals.
Ozempic is available on the NHS as a treatment to control blood glucose levels in people with type 2 diabetes. In May, it was also approved for weight loss under the brand name Wegovy and was launched on the NHS in September for weight loss for overweight or obese patients with weight-related health problems.
Now Ms Jones, who says she was “selfish” to use the vaccine and allow her children to see it like this, is urging people not to touch them without speaking to health professionals.
Despite losing around 60kg, the mother says she regrets using the “dangerous” weight-loss injection and feels “really lucky” to be alive.
She said: “I was very lucky, if I had been alone at home it could have been fatal. I couldn’t lift my head from the pillow.
‘Imagine being a single mother with young children who don’t understand what’s going on and ending up stuck in bed like that, who would know?
“It’s very dangerous. It’s like playing roulette with your life.
“I feel mortified that I put myself through that for my kids. That they have to see me like that just because I wanted to lose weight. It was selfish.”
“I just didn’t know the risks. I should have done my research. I trusted a beautician because she has a Facebook page.
“She sells to hundreds of people. When you see that she’s doing well, you think she’s not, but she’s not.”
Ms Jones believes weight-loss vaccines have become “too easily accessible” and urges others to get them through the NHS if necessary.
She said: ‘They are too accessible. I am worried about my children.
‘Go to a GP and do it properly through a dietician. If it’s something you’re really interested in, don’t do it through a beautician after all.
“After my experience, I wouldn’t even risk it. Why pay for it when you can do it through the National Health System if you need it so urgently?”
“There are women who use it and don’t even feel like they need it. Don’t do it. It’s really not worth it.”