Diabetic patient in critical condition after taking drug banned worldwide for more than 40 years

On February 6, Dr. Tran Huy Nhat, Department of Intensive Care and Anti-Poison, People's Hospital 115 said that during the Tet holiday, this unit received and treated a male patient who was poisoned due to using an epidural containing a banned substance to treat diabetes.

Specifically, the 59-year-old man (living in District 11, Ho Chi Minh City) had a history of diabetes and high blood pressure for about 10 years. He often bought Western medicine and unlabeled herbal medicine with unknown ingredients and dosages for treatment, but did not comply well and did not take the medicine regularly.

Before being admitted to People's Hospital 115, the patient had been vomiting a lot and had diarrhea for 2 days, then became lethargic. At the Emergency Department, doctors discovered that the patient was unresponsive, struggling, had respiratory failure, and had low blood pressure. Tests showed that he had severe acidosis and severe kidney damage.

The patient was quickly taken to the intensive care unit of the Department of Intensive Care and Anti-Poison, intubated, put on a ventilator and continuous blood filtration.

Taking the patient’s medical history, the family said that the patient bought and used the medicine on his own, including a bag of unlabeled medicine. The medicine package was bought by an acquaintance at a traditional medicine shop specializing in curing diabetes “completely” in Ben Tre province.

The hospital sent the package of medicine to the Forensic Center for testing and received results that the active ingredient in the medicine was phenformin. This is a diabetes treatment that has been banned in Vietnam and around the world since the 1970s.

After receiving intensive treatment, the patient gradually regained consciousness. His blood acidosis returned to normal levels and his kidney function improved. Two days after admission, he was extubated and transferred to the Department of Endocrinology for treatment of diabetes.

According to doctors in the Department of Endocrinology, diabetes is a disease that can only be treated with modern medicine and/or insulin injections under strict doctor's instructions. Patients need to be re-examined periodically to adjust the appropriate medication, it is absolutely impossible to use one prescription that applies to all cases of the disease.

Currently, many people claiming to be famous doctors, physicians… mix diabetes treatment drugs into epidurals to sell to users with advertisements that they can cure the disease. What is more dangerous, some places also mix the banned substance phenformin into the drugs, which can cause poisoning.

Phenformin poisoning causes severe acidosis, severe kidney failure and rapid death if not detected promptly.

After the case of the above male patient, People's Hospital 115 quickly reported to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health so that investigative agencies could get involved, trace the source and destroy the drug chains mixed with banned substances, to avoid circulation in the community leading to unfortunate deaths.