A Florida doctor injected himself and three others with an unlicensed botulinum toxin mixture, otherwise sold as Botox, in 2004. It was a cosmetic procedure that could have been deadly — and a new report confirms that those patients are lucky to be alive.
The illegal preparation contained the same botulinum bacteria as the popular cosmetic Botox, but at concentrations 40 times higher than a lethal dose.
The Florida doctor was sent to jail in January 2006, but the accident was not entirely his mistake.
This week’s Journal of the American Medical Association examines the four life-threatening cases of botulism for the first time since they were originally reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in November 2004.
Patients Showed Signs of Known Illness
Before these four cases were reported, the medical community had not seen cosmetic or therapeutic procedures lead to botulism.
According the report, all the patients in the case had been injected with a highly concentrated, unlicensed preparation of botulinum toxin. The preparation had been intended and labeled for laboratory use but not human use.
The patients and the physician who self-administered an injection eventually reported symptoms of weakness and problems swallowing or controlling facial muscles after receiving four to six injections of the unlicensed drug. Two patients became short of breath.
Researchers report that the patients had blood toxin levels equivalent to 21 to 43 times the estimated human lethal dose of botulinum. A full vial of the same toxin that was taken contained enough toxin to kill approximately 14,286 adults by injection.
The doctor and his patients were lucky to survive.
Botulism is a rare and paralyzing illness caused by strains of botulinum bacteria. If untreated, the infection slowly paralyzes the arms, legs, chest and respiratory muscles.
The doctor involved was sentenced in January to three years in jail for using an unapproved drug.
