The woman — who suffered multiple organ dysfunction in her liver, lungs, heart, and kidney — did it to stay healthy.
Marco Verch/Flickr
Taking up extreme health trends can be disastrous, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing. In the case of a 51-year-old Chinese woman identified only as Zeng, who injected a fruit juice concoction directly into her veins, it was nearly lethal.
According to Global Times, Zeng, an avid believer in folk remedies, blended 20 fruits together and filtered the mixture, before injecting herself with it. After her DIY injection, she began to experience severe itching and came down with a high fever.
Her husband, who was unaware of what Zeng had done, immediately rushed her to the hospital as her symptoms worsened. Her condition grew so severe that she was transferred to a larger hospital, the Affiliated Hospital of Xiangnan University in Hunan, where doctors were better equipped to treat her condition.
The hospital kept Zeng in the intensive care unit for five days. She suffered multiple organ dysfunction in her liver, kidney, heart, and lungs. Multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) can lead to multiple organ failure (MOF) and result in severe sepsis or septic shock, which is the most common cause of death for patients treated in the ICU. Fortunately for Zeng, her body was strong enough to survive the ordeal.
In an ironic twist, Zeng said that she performed the dangerous act to stay healthy.
“I thought fresh fruit was beneficial to health, and so I never expected it could cause fatal consequences,” she told the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald after she was well enough to speak.
Zeng may have survived her fruit juice fiasco, but she may not live through the embarrassment from her stunt. The BBC reported that more than 11,000 Weibo users in China have started the hashtag #OldWomanPutsJuiceIntoVeins in reference to Zeng’s case.
https://twitter.com/Trekky2012/status/1107980798781734912
“Her white blood cells must have fought an extremely tough battle. Poor cells!” One commenter on Weibo wrote. Internet users outside of the country have also been commenting on the absurdity of her fruit juice stunt on Twitter.
Although many have written Zeng’s case off as an outrageous outlier, it could be a marker of a larger public health problem. After all, this isn’t the first time that someone has resorted to using extreme methods in order to stay healthy.
Next, read about the woman who died from using bee stings as homeopathic acupuncture. Then, learn about the cancer victim who claimed veganism cured her.
