Heavy metal poisoning due to the use of “word of mouth” male drugs

Since 2019, female patient Nguyen Thi H. (27 years old, living in Dak Lak province) was found to have ankylosing spondylitis. The patient had visited the Department of Musculoskeletal Medicine, Cho Ray Hospital and was given medication by the doctor. However, after listening to the neighbor’s words, the male medicine for ankylosing spondylitis was better than western medicine, so the patient switched to taking male medicine.

The patient has lost hundreds of millions of dong in detoxification treatment due to the use of male drugs (Photo Nguyen My)

After 4 months, the disease did not improve, but the disease progressed worse and worse. Worried, Ms. H visited Cho Ray Hospital and was found to have a very severe intestinal ulcer. The doctor diagnosed the patient with heavy metal poisoning from herbal medicine. Doctors asked the patient to stop drinking to cut off the source of the poison, and at the same time to plan a long course of treatment to deal with the consequences of the ulcer. However, heavy metal poisoning has left a sequelae of severe intestinal protein loss. Therefore, the patient was forced to receive albumin and protein infusion every day for the past 2 years. Every day, the patient costs more than 1 million VND.

Doctor Doan Uyen Vy, in charge of the Poison Control Clinic of Cho Ray Hospital, said that currently, the hospital has an antidote for heavy metals. After 3 days of infusion of the antidote, the patient recovered, was healthy again, no longer lost protein through the intestinal tract, thereby ending the need to infuse albumin, protein infusion every day… According to Dr. Vy, the infection Poisoning from male drugs takes place silently and manifests as a medical disease that is not always easy to find the cause.