{"id":29552,"date":"2024-07-12T03:06:28","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T08:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=29552"},"modified":"2024-07-12T03:06:33","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T08:06:33","slug":"fake-botox-put-a-woman-on-a-ventilator-experts-worry-itll-happen-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=29552","title":{"rendered":"Fake Botox put a woman on a ventilator. Experts worry it\u2019ll happen again."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cheap, counterfeit Botox given by people not trained to do facial injections, in places without a doctor on standby<\/a>, became a dangerous combination that landed more than a dozen women in the hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In at least one case, a woman became so ill that she had to be placed on a ventilator to help her breathe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seventeen women in nine states\u2002<\/a>have experienced symptoms ranging from blurry vision to trouble swallowing and breathing after receiving what they thought were Botox injections to smooth fine lines and wrinkles. Thirteen were hospitalized, and several needed treatment in the intensive care unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A report published Thursday<\/a> by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided alarming details of patients in New York City and Tennessee. One woman from Kentucky was admitted to the hospital in Tennessee. The women ranged in ages between 26 and 55.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four women attended a gathering at a relative\u2019s home in Tennessee to get Botox injected into their faces, including the lines between their eyebrows, about three days before their symptoms began. An investigation later showed the injected product was counterfeit and given by a person who was not licensed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn some cases, providers were concerned about patients\u2019 breathing to the point where they were admitting them to intensive care units to be able to monitor them more closely,\u201d said Dr. Christine Thomas, a medical director at the Tennessee Department of Health and lead author of the new report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas, who was an epidemic intelligence service officer at the CDC at the time of the investigation, called the situation a \u201cperfect storm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were seeing the injections happening in homes from people who weren\u2019t licensed, and there was counterfeit product,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NBC News has learned of one of the most disturbing examples of fake Botox-related injury. A 49-year-old woman in Colorado received what she thought was Botox, but her vision soon blurred and her otherwise healthy body became unusually weak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nine days went by before the woman was hospitalized with trouble swallowing and breathing<\/a>. Her condition became so dire that doctors were forced to intubate her and put her on a ventilator to help her breathe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They had no idea what was wrong with her until a family member mentioned in passing that the woman had recently received Botox injections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That likely saved the woman\u2019s life, said Grace Nelson, a disease intervention supervisor at the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment who helped lead the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe patient was decompensating and in bad condition for us to do an interview,\u201d Nelson said. The family member\u2019s information is what led Nelson\u2019s team to step in and help authorize giving the woman botulinum antitoxin to prevent the poison from causing further damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The woman was ultimately hospitalized for more than two weeks and needed further rehabilitation, Nelson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doctors qualified to administer Botox are concerned more patients like the one in Colorado will be injured, especially as unregulated medical spas have grown in popularity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m extremely worried,\u201d said Dr. Kate Dee, a physician and founder of Glow Medispa in Seattle. \u201cAs more and more people order fake Botox off the internet, there could be anything in that vial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fake Botox is not a new phenomenon, said George Karavetsos, a lawyer and former director of the Food and Drug Administration\u2019s Office of Criminal Investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCounterfeit Botox has been in the U.S. supply chain for at least 20 years,\u201d Karavetsos said. \u201cI have personally investigated and prosecuted cases of people who were either importing counterfeit Botox or formulating their own version of counterfeit Botox here in the U.S. to sell to the domestic market, to med spas and other clinicians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Efforts to address the influx of tainted Botox, including catching people responsible for the tainted products in other countries, have been largely unsuccessful, Karavetsos said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow do you stop it? It\u2019s education to the consumer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What to know when getting Botox<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are several ways to identify potentially risky situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ask to check the vials. Thomas said her team found misspellings on the counterfeit bottles. And according to the FDA<\/a>, the outer carton on counterfeit Botox products:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Displays the active ingredient as \u201cBotulinum Toxin Type A\u201d instead of \u201cOnabotulinumtoxinA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indicates 150-unit doses, which is not a unit made by AbbVie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is printed in a language other than English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only get Botox in a licensed medical setting from a licensed provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA cosmetology license is not a license to practice medicine,\u201d Dee said. And if the Botox in question is being given in a salon, a home or a hotel room, that\u2019s \u201ca giant red flag because those places don\u2019t usually have a doctor anywhere near them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas recommended making sure providers are licensed appropriately ahead of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tennessee Department of Health, for example, has a\u2002link to search for licensed facilities, including medical spas<\/a>, in that state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t be fooled by appearances, Karavetsos advised: \u201cPeople go in and see a person wearing a white coat. They see what purports to be professionals administering Botox. They\u2019re unwitting victims.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be wary of deals that are too good to be true. One of the women treated in Tennessee \u201creported paying less for their injections than we know botulinum toxin costs,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dee said that the average price for Botox is roughly $15 a unit, so charging anywhere from $12 to $25 would be reasonable. That accounts for not just the vial itself, but for supplies like rubbing alcohol, gauze, refrigeration and other overhead costs in medical facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If someone is charging far less \u2014 $6 to $9 per unit, for example \u2014 that\u2019s a warning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo one can do that long term and stay in business,\u201d Dee said. \u201cIt\u2019s likely those people are doing this illegally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cheap, counterfeit Botox given by people not trained to do facial injections, in places without a doctor on standby, became a dangerous combination that landed more than a dozen women in the hospital. In at least one case, a woman became so ill that she had to be placed on a ventilator to help her breathe. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":29553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5784],"tags":[29292,29616,7710,2258,24956],"class_list":["post-29552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-botulinum-toxin","tag-breathing-difficulties","tag-counterfeit","tag-hospital","tag-injections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29554,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29552\/revisions\/29554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}