‘It was like a sledgehammer to my skull,’ says mum, 38, left in agony after £20 ‘skinny jab’ she bought on Facebook
A MUM-OF-THREE thought she was ‘going to die’ after a skinny jab left her vomiting uncontrollably.
In a bid to shed some pounds ahead of her summy holiday, Stacey Smith found weight loss injections being sold on Facebook at a nearby clinic.
The mum who had previously suffered from a stroke, was offered an appointment in the salon just ten minutes after she enquired.
The 38-year old, who is between a size 12 and 14, said the appointment took just two minutes.
An hour after the appointment, the mum started to suffer from heartburn and trapped wind – but she was told by the therapist this was normal.
The day after the 38-year-old had the shot she started suffering with a pounding headache, and vomiting and was left so weak she had to call her ex for help to move off the bed.
Stacey’s concerned 13-year-old daughter rang for an ambulance that evening and she was rushed to hospital where she was hooked up to IV drips and given pain relief.
The family of drugs known as GLP-1 RAs, originally developed to treat diabetes, are now often being used for weight loss as they were found to suppress a patient’s appetite.
A month on from her horror experience Stacey is still suffering from headaches, bloating, struggles going to the toilet and still hasn’t regained her appetite.
Now the dog walking business owner, who is ‘well known’ for her curvy bum and thighs, is urging people not to touch them claiming people may lose weight ‘but you’ll be skinny in your coffin’.
Stacey, from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, said: “I’ve never been that ill in my life and I don’t ever want to be again. I thought I was going to die.
“The pain in my head, I’d never felt anything like it in my life. It was like somebody had taken a sledgehammer across my head.
“I couldn’t get my head off the pillow and I couldn’t have lights on.
“I’ve never been sick like this in my life, it didn’t stop for days on end to the point where I couldn’t get off the bed.
“I couldn’t even hold down sips of water, I was constantly purging.
“I had to phone my ex-partner and said ‘I’m dying you’re going to have to come’.”
Stacey said she’d seen adverts for the so-called skinny shots on Facebook over several months.
Intrigued by a string of glowing customer reviews and transformation pictures, Stacey contacted the salon on social media on June 21 and said she wanted to book in.
The 5ft 3in mum-of-three says she was told there was a vacancy so within 10 minutes popped into the salon and had it done, a process that took ‘two minutes’.
Stacey said: “I’m quite curvy, a size 12 top and a size 14-16 bottom. I’m well known for my bum and thighs, people are like ‘I’d pay a fortune for that’.
“I’d seen adverts for it [the skinny jab] for a few months but because summer’s coming up, I want to go on holiday and I want to feel confident and wear a bikini and summer dresses.
“I’d just gone through a break-up too.
“I get my lips done, I get a bit of Botox so I’m not scared to do stuff but I’m also not an uneducated woman.
“I’m not an idiot, so I’ve actually surprised myself that I’ve done such a stupid thing.
“I think I’m going through perimenopause and I’ve put a bit of weight on.
“I’d been umming and aahing with the idea for a while. It’s not like I don’t go to the gym, or I’m unfit.
“I [messaged her and] said ‘I’m going to do it’ and she said ‘I’m in the salon now if you want to come’.
“Within ten minutes of me messaging her I went.
“When I went for that jab, no word of a lie, I was in that salon for two minutes.
“I walked in, she asked if I had diabetes and asked if I was on things she listed, I said ‘no’.
“She said ‘yeah that’s fine’, I handed her £20, she stabbed me in the stomach and I left.”
Within 90 minutes of having the shot, Stacey started suffering from trapped wind and had reflux but says she was simply told by the salon that it was normal and to drink water.
I wouldn’t recommend anyone try this, you may as well just sign your death wish
Stacey Smith
But the next day Stacey, who suffered a stroke and blood clots on the brain two years ago, said she started to feel unwell and was admitted to Chesterfield Royal Hospital in Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
Stacey said: “I went to bed that night and couldn’t sleep because of that feeling like I needed to burp, but the following day I started going downhill.
“I was really ill, I was projectile vomiting and had a pain in my head.
“My daughter rang for an ambulance, they took me to A&E. They gave me pain relief for my head and anti-sickness medication.
“I was hooked up to an IV drip and I had a suppository up my bum for pain relief.
“Doctors said it can happen [with this jab], that there was no quick fix and there’s no reverse drug – it’s just a case of waiting for it to get out of your system.”
It comes as twenty deaths in Britain have been linked to weight-loss jabs since 2019, according to official data.
After a few days in hospital Stacey was discharged and is still feeling the effects of the jab weeks later.
The business owner, who missed out on a week’s-worth of work due to falling ill, is now sharing her ordeal so others don’t have the same experience she had.
Stacey said: “I take 50 per cent of the blame myself for doing something so stupid.
“What’s annoyed me the most is she’s still promoting this stuff knowing I’ve just been in hospital, knowing she could have potentially killed me, but she’s still advertising it.
“I still have pains in my head, I still feel sick and I can’t eat as much. After all that sickness I’ve not even lost a pound, it’s crackers.
“I still have that bloated feeling and I can’t for the life of me poo properly.
“I wouldn’t recommend anyone try this, you may as well just sign your death wish.
“You might lose your weight but you’ll be skinny in your coffin. Don’t do it.”
GLP-1 drugs include semaglutide – the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy jabs – which the NHS says can help with weight loss.
The former, however, is only given to patients with type 2 diabetes.
Saxenda (liraglutide) weight loss injections are also available on the NHS.
You can only take liraglutide or semaglutide if they’re prescribed to you by a specialist weight management service, the NHS says.
However, the drugs are being bought online from unregulated sources.
Last year, the Government warned that fake fat jabs were being imported into the UK.
Everything you need to know about fat jabs
Weight loss jabs are a hot media topic at the moment, with hundreds of success stories from people who shed the pounds.
n March 2023, the NHS announced it would make Wegovy, a drug made by Danish firm Novo Nordisk, available on prescription to thousands of obese Brits.
It contains the drug semaglutide, which is said to have helped reality star Kim Kardashian and Twitter boss Elon Musk lose weight.
Wegovy, which helped a third of people reduce their weight by 20 per cent in trials, is now available from pharmacies like Boots.
How do they work?
The jabs work by suppressing your appetite, making you eat less and therefore lose weight.
To do this, semaglutide mimics the role of a natural hormone, called GLP-1.
GLP-1 is part of the signalling pathway that tells your body you have eaten, and prepares it to use the energy that comes from your food.
London GP and founder of wellgoodwellbeing.com, Dr Zoe Watson, said: “Your body naturally produces an appetite regulating hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1.
“These jabs work by regulating your appetite, which can lead to eating fewer calories and losing weight.”
Aren’t they diabetes drugs?
Semaglutide, the active drug in Wegovy, was originally sold under the name Ozempic specifically for diabetes patients.
But people started noticing it helped suppress their appetites, stopping them eating as much and helping them shed the pounds.
Novo Nordisk then developed Wegovy, which contains the same chemical but at higher doses specifically to aid weight loss.
Wegovy is not prescribed for diabetes patients.
Can I get them?
Wegovy is offered on prescription to obese adults given specialist weight loss treatment.
The NHS currently also offers a similar drug called Saxenda, or liraglutide.
Both are only available on Tier 3 and Tier 4 weight management services, which means you have to be referred to weight management clinics led by experts.
GPs can’t prescribe them on their own either, Dr Watson said.
The jabs have to be taken as part of an overall programme to help with lifestyle changes and psychological support to get the best effect from the medication prescribed.
Despite being approved for use, supply of Wegovy on the NHS has been postponed indefinitely because of a surge in worldwide demand.
Supply was also halved in the US because of the skyrocketing demand.
Are there any risks?
Like all medicines, the jabs do not come without side effects.
Around half of people taking the drug experience gut issues, including sickness, bloating, acid reflux, constipation and diarrhoea.
Dr Sarah Jarvis, GP and clinical consultant at patient.info, said: “One of the more uncommon side effects is severe acute pancreatitis, which is extremely painful and happens to one in 500 people.”
Other uncommon side effects include altered taste, kidney problems, allergic reactions, thyroid tumours, gallbladder problems and hypoglycemia.
What other options are there?
Mounjaro (brand name for tirzepatide) also came onto the market in early 2024.
Like Wegovy, tirzepatide stems from a drug originally designed to treat diabetes.
The weekly injection helped overweight people drop more than two stone in 18 months.
It is available with to order with a prescription online from pharmacies including Superdrug and LloydsPharmacy Online Doctor.
It works in a similar way to Wegovy and Saxenda, but is more effective.
Dr Mitra Dutt from LloydsPharmacy says: “Based on clinical trials, 96 per cent of people were able to lose more than five per cent of their body fat using Mounjaro. In similar trials, 84 per cent of people lost more than five per cent of their body weight on Wegovy, and 60 per cent on Saxenda.
“Mounjaro works by activating two hormonal receptors (GIP and GLP-1), which enhance insulin production, improve insulin sensitivity, and work to decrease food intake.”