A Texas woman says she nearly died after botox injections left her partially paralyzed and choking on her own saliva.
Alicia Hallock, 36, took to Instagram to share her horror story, saying she was initially prescribed the popular muscle-freezing drug to treat her migraines.
“I ended up having a rare complication,” the mom of three wrote on a post written from a hospital bed on February 17th. “It spread to my neck muscles and now it’s causing a lot of problems. My eyelids are droopy, causing a lot of pressure, blurred vision and dizziness. The muscles in my neck are practically paralyzed so I can’t lift my head.”
She added that the complications had caused dysphagia, meaning she could not swallow sips of water or her saliva.
“I was taken to the ICU for constant monitoring and they put 6 tubes down my throat to get all the mucus stuck in my lungs and throat,” Hallock told her followers.
The next day, Hallock’s condition worsened, with the Dallas resident writing in next post, “They tried to suction me again last night because I was so stuck with mucus that I temporarily stopped breathing. They had to put me in a bag to raise my oxygen levels and keep me from blacking out.”
Doctors were also concerned that Hallock could develop botulism – an extremely rare, potentially fatal condition that attacks the body’s nerves.
Botulism is a poisoning usually caused by bacteria growing in improperly sterilized canned meats and other preserved foods. However, according to USA Today, Botox injections use the same type of toxin that causes foodborne botulism. In this case, however, the toxin is purified and meets Food and Drug Administration standards.
“One doctor had treated food-borne botulism, but no one involved in my care had ever seen it from Botox injections,” Hallock said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent mom a special botulism antitoxin to try to mitigate the effects.
He was also placed on a feeding tube so doctors could administer other medications and soft foods.
After 18 days in the hospital, Hallock was finally released from the hospital, but her recovery continues.
“I’ll be doing some basic exercises at home, but I won’t be able to safely resume physical therapy and outpatient therapy until four to six weeks from now, when the Botox starts to wear off more and I can actually use and rebuild the strength in my neck muscles. “ she explained.
Hallock suffers from a chronic illness, previously claimed that she has “dozens of separate medical diagnoses, each fighting against the other and against your immune system.”
It is unclear whether these conditions may have affected how her body responded to the Botox injections.
Either way, Hallock admits that her severe side effects from the injections are unusual.
“People have complications with Botox, even experiencing some or all of the symptoms I have,” she explained. “However, it is extremely rare for me to have many symptoms to the severity or extent that I had. So the hospital is doing a case study on me and this weird situation we’re going through.”
Dermatologist Dr. Lindsey Zubritsky further told USA Today that Botox “is considered safe and effective for most people.”
“Rarely, when injected incorrectly, Botox can cause feelings of heaviness, drooping of the brow, or other unwanted asymmetry depending on the areas injected,” he said.
