Woman Bought Weight-Loss Meds Online, Develops Hole in Esophagus

A woman who landed in the ICU and lost her hair after taking weight-loss injectables she bought online is warning others to “go through your doctor” to procure the medicine.

Aimee Chapman, 34, bought weight-loss injectables from an online pharmacy in March 2024. Chapman, who hails from the English city of Southampton, says she’d hoped weight loss would lead to her being “taken more seriously” by doctors, according to The Daily Mail.

In the first four months of taking the medication, Chapman says she lost nearly 60 lbs., but then she started to experience concerning side effects.

“I couldn’t really do much. I was only eating a couple of times a week,” Chapman said. “I stopped being able to walk. I would take a couple of steps and have to stop.” 

Chapman says her condition continued to spiral. She “collapsed a couple times” and “couldn’t stop being sick. I was throwing up all the time and started throwing up blood. I was sick between 50 and 60 times.” 

She dismissed it as “some sort of virus,” admitting she was “in a bit of denial” about her deteriorating health being connected to the online weight-loss injectables. She began to have fainting spells: “My husband came home and found me passed out [in] the hallway one night,” she recalled.

Only when Chapman began to experience chest pains did she go to the hospital, where doctors discovered a hole in her esophagus. As the Cleveland Clinic explains, this can cause “inflammation, infection and life-threatening complications” as the contents of your gastrointestinal tract spill into your chest. 

It can be caused by vomiting, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Chapman’s liver started failing, and she was admitted to the ICU. Doctors said her condition was caused by the weight-loss injectables — “but they didn’t know why or how to fix it.”

“I was terrified. It all happened so quickly,” Chapman said. “I was told the hole in the esophagus can kill people and I may have needed a new liver. They said I could’ve died.”

After two weeks in the hospital, Chapman’s condition stabilized enough for her to be discharged without needing a liver transplant.

But her struggle continued: In September, her hair began to fall out due to vitamin deficiency that may have been caused by the rapid weight loss.

“It kept happening and the handfuls kept getting bigger. I would be so sad. My hair was such a massive part of my identity and to cut it off just felt really traumatic. But I said to myself it was just hair, it’ll grow back.”

As the weight-loss injectables surge in popularity, many people have been hospitalized from counterfeit versions that are widely available online. In January, Big Brother UK star Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace said she had a severe reaction after taking counterfeit injectables: “At one point, I had three bags of vomit by my bedside … I thought I was going to die,” she said.

Chapman says she regrets buying the weight-loss injectables online, warning, “I’d say to other people thinking about trying them, don’t do it online, go through your doctor who can give you blood tests and check how you’re doing.” 

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