Khaberni - A moment of innocent childhood curiosity turned into a real nightmare inside a home in Indiana, USA, after an 8-year-old girl was found lying on the floor of the house, immobile, after injecting herself with an overdose of her mother's weight loss medication.
The child, Jessa Milner, believed the injection was meant for stomach aches, so she picked up a GLP-1 injection pen belonging to her mother Melissa, and injected herself with about 60% of its content in one go, which is more than two full adult doses, noting that one pen usually contains four doses distributed over four weeks, according to the British newspaper "The Sun".
Jessa, now 8 years old, said in a poignant testimony, "I thought it was medicine for the stomach.. my mom takes it and I thought it alleviated her stomach pains."
After the discovery of the incident, the terrified mother immediately called the poison control center, before rushing her daughter to the emergency department, where the child arrived pale-faced, lacking strength, and unable to move. The mother said, "We were not prepared for what happened.. We did not expect her condition to deteriorate like this."
According to the mother, the child suffered from severe dehydration and continuous vomiting episodes, amid a clear medical disarray, as the emergency crew did not have a clear protocol for dealing with overdoses of GLP-1 drugs in children.
Media reports indicate that the reports associated with GLP-1 injections to poison control centers in the United States have increased by 1500% since 2019, with hundreds of calls recorded monthly, and in Britain, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency reported a significant increase in reports of severe reactions associated with these drugs during the years 2024 and 2025.
After the child was provided with intravenous fluids and medications that alleviated the symptoms, the doctors allowed her to leave the hospital, a decision the mother later expressed deep regret about.
After returning home, Jessa's condition deteriorated again, and she became so weak that her mother had to carry her to the bathroom. She suffered from severe thirst and constant vomiting, and was unable to retain any fluids. With her ceasing to urinate, she was transferred to the hospital for the second time, where medical reports expressed concern about her kidney functions.
The mother confirmed that she was 100% sure that her daughter's life was in danger, pointing out that the child did not eat any food for six consecutive days. She said, "It was the worst week of our lives, I thought she was dying, she lost a lot of weight, and she was unable to walk."
She added that her daughter was screaming in pain even while asleep, and refused anyone to touch her stomach, describing what the family went through as a miracle since the child did not suffer any long-term complications.
Fortunately, Jessa later fully recovered, and her mother confirmed that she now keeps the weight-loss injections in a locked box she bought on the day of the accident itself, expressing hope that sharing her story would warn parents of the risks of leaving medications accessible to children.
