Emine Özlü, a mother of three children who works as a cook at a zinc oxide factory in Bor district of Niğde, applied to the hospital with a complaint of fainting in August. Emine Özlü, whose blood values were determined to be very high, was referred to Etlik City Hospital in Ankara.
In the examinations performed here, Özlü was diagnosed with liver failure. It was learned that Özlü drank 2 cups of slimming tea a day for more than a month to get rid of her excess weight. As his condition deteriorated rapidly, a suitable donor was found in Konya within 1 hour for Özlü, who was put on the urgent organ transplant queue. Emine Özlü clung to life with a liver transplant from a cadaver.
‘I DID NOT KNOW I WAS TRANSPLANTED’
Emine Özlü, who came from Niğde to Ankara Etlik City Hospital for her check-ups, said that she started using slimming tea upon the advice of her friend after reaching 80 kilos and said, “I used the slimming tea for about a month. It said, ‘You need to drink one daily.’ I said, ‘My intestines are not working, I drank two drinks a day so I could lose weight quickly. Then I felt bad and went to the hospital. After that, I stayed in intensive care. I had surgery. I don’t remember that process at all. I came to my senses on the first of September. While I was in the intensive care unit, our doctors told me that my liver had completely failed and they decided that I needed a liver transplant. However, I received a transplant from a cadaver. I have no idea. I’m fine now, thank God. I went through a very difficult process. No one should use anything like that. It’s been a very difficult time. I’m still having a hard time. I thought I could lose weight on my own, without even knowing it, just with my friend’s advice. But it didn’t happen. “Everyone should get professional support for weight loss,” he said.
‘THESE PRODUCTS CAN CAUSE SERIOUS DAMAGE TO ORGANS’
Sinan Yanık, one of Özlü’s doctors, said that the patient had an acute liver injury after using slimming tea and said, “When our patient came to us, his liver tests were quite deteriorated. During our follow-up, the most important indicator of acute liver failure developed in the patient. We evaluated our patient with our organ transplantation team and deemed him suitable for transplantation.” Unfortunately, there is widespread use of these unlicensed and unapproved teas for weight loss in our country and we warn our patients about this; however, there is a very high rate of use. “These are products that can seriously harm not only the liver but all organs. These are products that have not been studied and have no warnings. We need to warn patients about this and avoid the use of these products.”
‘WE RECOMMEND THEM NOT TO RECEIVE TREATMENT WITHOUT MINISTRY APPROVAL’
Prof. from Etlik City Hospital Organ Transplantation Clinic. Dr. Mustafa Özsoy said, “We confirmed the diagnosis of liver failure in our patient and planned that he should have a liver transplant. He was in a very urgent situation, we first evaluated the living donor. But we could not find a suitable living donor. During this process, we made an emergency notification and applied for the use of this patient as the first organ donor in Turkey.” Our application was accepted and luckily for our patient, the first organ came to us 1 hour after the application. Our patient survived with a new liver within this period. “Unfortunately, he has unconsciously used medication, slimming pills and slimming teas. During this period, we recommend our patients not to take any medication or medical treatment without the approval of the Ministry of Health and other ministries,” he said.
(DHA)